Dreams
by Sokka's Fan-Lawyer
Summary: CHAPTER 6 FINALLY UP!Future; With Aang in tow, Sokka and Zuko finally make it to space, but with the galaxy's worst mafia, the Fire Nation, after them, will they live long enough to enjoy it? First fanfic, rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

Sokka couldn't help but grin; after all those years of working, they had finally done it

**Hey everybody, what's up? I'm Sokka's Fan-Lawyer and this is my first fanfiction! As this is my first, I hope that it's a sort-of-okay one to read, since I wanted to start my career off with a kind of good one and to see what people think of my writing style! Anyway, on with the fanfiction!!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar or any of its characters…I only wish I did. I did, we wouldn't be stopping at 3 seasons!**

Dreams

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Sokka couldn't help but grin; after all those years of working, they had finally done it! Both he and Zuko had managed to save up enough money to buy an intergalactic travel ship! Naturally, it wasn't the best of quality, but it was good enough by Sokka's standards…which admittingly weren't very high to the price of ships these days. He was practically sprinting back towards their shared apartment to let Zuko know that their years of planning, slaving, and penny pinching had finally come to fruit! They would finally be able to take to the heavens and explore the vastness of the universe.

While their dreams were rather ambitious, their current circumstances were not. They had ended up getting a cheap apartment in the bad side of Ba Sing Se, where the crime rate was higher the Sokka's IQ (which, contrary to popular believe, was rather high). The sidewalks and streets were cracked…not that anyone actually used the streets anymore, what with their expensive hover cars and crap like that, and the buildings were dirty with various windows boarded up. Sokka ran up to a building, mentally noting the weather, which looked as though it may rain at any moment.

When he opened the door to their apartment building, he had to dodge a kid racing out via his hover board. The kid was wearing a baseball hat that read "SOLDIERS" with a sword through the middle, on his wrist was a sweat band, a yellow t-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers; but what surprised Sokka most were his deep gray eyes, which –at this moment- were wide with fear. "What the…?" Sokka wondered when the manager came running out, "Stop, thief!" "Thief!?" Sokka asked, shocked; after all, who would steal from a run down place like this? "Yeah, he broke into my room and stole the money that I got from rent this month; and not only that, he broke into your place too." "What!" Sokka glared in the direction that the kid had gone, "Damn brat!" he charged after the kid in pursuit. He pulled down his goggles from his tan forehead over his blue eyes as to keep the various elements in the semi-smoggy air to restrict his vision, his sneakers hitting the ground at a fast pace, his baggy blue jeans, red t-shirt, black short sleeve jacket, and fingerless gloved hands were flying through the air wildly, which would have been a rather comical sit had it not been a emergency.

Damn the bastard, I hope he didn't take our money for the ship! Sokka thought as he sprinted, managing to catch a glimpse of the guilty party turning into an alley. People were naturally disgruntled when Sokka shoved between them to cross the street to get to the other side where the alley was, but Sokka didn't give a damn if they were upset, the guy stole their money so Sokka's actions were perfectly reasonable. As if hearing Sokka's thoughts, the kid turned around and saw Sokka rushing after him…which meant that he didn't see that the alley turned off to a new on, thus crashing into the brick wall. "Got 'cha!" Sokka grinned as he quickly nabbed the hover board while sitting on top of the perpetrator, ensuring that he wouldn't run away. "Get off!" The kid demanded as he squirmed, trying to slip away from his captor. "Like hell I will," Sokka grinned. "As it turns out, you owe me money."

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"So, who is this?" Zuko inquired as he sat on one of the two chairs in their apartment. "You tell him what you told me." Sokka ordered their tied up captive, who in turn, shot Sokka a glare. "Spill it!" Sokka said, comically smacking the youth upside the head. "Okay! God, you're an asshole!" The kid groaned. Zuko laughed ass Sokka stuttered, "What was that punk?!" "He has you pegged." "Shut up!" While Sokka pouted, Zuko looked curiously at their prisoner. "So you stole our money, huh?" For once, the kid looked confused, "Your money? You had some? I just judged from the look of this dump that you guys were broke-" "Shut up!" Both roommates demanded. The kid shrugged uncaringly. "What did you say your name was?" Sokka asked in an annoyed tone. "I dunno." The kid shrugged again. "My ass you don't! Quit messing with us!" Sokka yelled while Zuko tried to calm him down.

"Fine, at least we got the hover board, so that's something." Zuko comforted; the kid snorted, "It won't get you much; it's stolen and I'm pretty sure that the owners will have activated the tracking device inside by now." "What?!" They both exclaimed while thinking, how can you say that with such a calm expression?! "What were you guys going to do with that money anyway? You're obviously not putting it to your apartment's wellbeing, so I'm assuming you have another cause in mind." "As a matter of fact, we do!" Sokka retorted. "We're going to buy a space ship and ride it all the way to the across the galaxy!" There was silence after he said this, then…the kid burst out laughing. "Outer space? The edge of the galaxy? That's crap! No one can do it. After all, we've only managed to get out to several light years away, not nearly enough to make it the edge! Besides, even if you could, how would you survive? There's a freakin' black hole in the middle that you'll need to cross; nothing can survive it! Plus, the area surrounding it is one of the most dangerous out there! It's nuts!"

There was silence, then…"It's not nuts; it's our dream and we're willing to fight for it." He smiled slightly, closing his eyes; well, closing one of his eyes and squinting the one that was on the left side of his face, due to the large burn scar that was restricting that side's muscles. He was pale, with a red shirt on, plus a pair of dark cargo pants above his sneakers, and he wore wrist bands on both wrists. Surprise crossed the kid's features briefly, before being replaced by a look of doubt and contempt. "Dream, huh? That's a crappy dream. How can you fight for something that's never going to happen? The odds alone are enough to deter people from making such crazy declarations." "Why you-. Are you really twelve years old?" Sokka demanded, and this time, Zuko looked semi-angry himself. The kid just shrugged and fell silent again. "You know what? I don't give a damn about what you think; we believe we can do it and that's good enough! Besides, it's not like we're ever going to see you again!" The kid was silent for a second, and then whispered in such a silent tone that only Zuko heard, "Yeah, no one does."

**Later…**

"You sure we should have let him go?" Sokka inquired Zuko. After holding the boy prisoner for a few hours, Zuko finally unwrapped the rope and let him go. Zuko sighed and set down the pan he was using to make their dinner. "Yeah, he didn't seem to be a threat, plus he returned the money he stole back to Mr. Johnson, so there wasn't any real reason for keeping him here." "Fine, whatever." Sokka shrugged and returned to messing around with the touch screen menu of their paper-thin TV set. "So, what did you want to tell me?" Zuko asked as he added some things into the mixture. "Oh yeah!" He turned towards his friend and reached into his pocket, "We got it." He showed Zuko the paperwork that said that they were the official owners of the Sky model XZ, also called APPA for unknown reasons. "Really?!" Zuko said; Sokka nodded. "Yeah, the guy will drive it to the space port near the top of the wall tomorrow. From there, we'll have our friend Theo look it through and fix it up; plus we need to stock it with food and weapons and maps and etc." Zuko nodded, but then noticed that his food was burning. "Crap!" He hurriedly tried to put out the flames while Sokka laughed, "Man, you can't cook worth crap!" "Yeah? Well, how about you try smart ass?!" Zuko objected while he sprayed their extinguisher. "Smart ass, am I?" Sokka yelled as he jokingly punched Zuko, "It's go time!" The two began to fight as the sun set, then fell asleep in anticipation for the coming day.

The kid on the other hand, wasn't having a good time. He kicked a can in his path as he walked down the sidewalk, only to have the can be blown away due to a passing hover car; he could only sigh and press on. What was it about those two anyway? Why should they have shaken him up so bad? He wondered, and then thought, it must have been because of their talk of dreams; how could those idiots actually believe in that crap? Dreams were only delusions to distract you from your current circumstances, your hopes taking your mind away from what was happening. It never actually did anything, they weren't possible, they weren't logical, they weren't going to happen. And yet, those two were so caught up in their belief that they actually were going to try to obtain it. For some reason, an image of an old man crossed his mind; he quickly shook it off and spat onto the pavement, "Fools…dreams are for deluded idiots." He muttered as he continued to walk down the concrete path, not noticing the person walking several paces behind him. The guy reached into his pocket, drew out a cell phone (the new paper thin edition with holographic user interface that was shoplifted from a local Radio Shed) and talked into it briefly. After he hung up, he began to increase his pace, getting closer to the kid.

The thief would never be sure as to why he turned around at that moment, but when he did so, he saw the man in a large dark jacket with black gloves, boots, and baseball cap on his head. "Crap!" The kid began to sprint away, racing towards an alleyway; the man swore and raced after him. The Kid quickly turned down the nearest alleyway after that, charging down one to the left of the current one he was running down. He quickly turned to glance whether the man was still on his tail or not…which turned out to be his first mistake. While he was looking back, he literally bumped into someone coming towards him from the front; he grunted and fell to his butt. "I, I got him!" The man with shoulder length dark hair wearing a dark suit said in both glee and surprise; he quickly shook off his victory and began to tie him up with duck tape. "To think that you thought you could leave us so soon, Aang."

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Aang couldn't do anything but glare at his captors with a hatred that nobody would guess that he was capable of, his gray eyes squinted in a look of defiance. The man before him could only chuckle over the youth's spirit. "Hello Aang, how have you been lately? After you left our kind hospitality the last time, we have been worried about how you have been." Aang's look of contempt didn't falter as he remained tied to a steel chair with duck tape covering his hands and feet, restricting their movement. The room they were in was a fancy one, with a large window overlooking the space port -indicating that their location was along the top of the wall-, large fire place to Aang's left with a moose lion pelt for a rug with the antlers used as decoration for the mantle, then there were wooden walls for the other sides of the room, with a wooden-looking door (although Aang guessed it was probably metal underneath the coating that made it look like wood that was rather popular these days, mostly due to wood becoming hard to find); a table lay between Aang and his captor, who was wearing a dark, pressed suit, with shoulder length hair and a square jaw; the man's name was Xin Fu, a drug lord and wrestling manager for the intergalactic wrestling league known as 'Earth Rumble Six'-…why it was called that no one knew for sure- but what he was most infamous for was being a part of the most feared mafia family in the whole galaxy…the Fire Nation.

"Not going to answer, huh?" Xin Fu took a sip from the wine glass he was holding at the time, then slammed it down on to the table. "You don't know who you're dealing with boy!" He got up and stood over Aang imposingly. "Where is it? The serum that you stole?" Aang's facial expression turned into a expression of surprise; Xin Fu laughed, "What, you thought we didn't know? I must say, you do give yourself too much credit, don't you? Yes, we know that you stole the Avatar serum as well as deleting the plans, but while that only delayed us, it is rather inconvenient; so tell me its location, now!" Aang only shrugged, refusing to speak…only to get punched, making the chair-and Aang-fall to the ground on its side. Xin Fu bent down and squeezed Aang's head with one powerful hand and scowled, "You have no idea on what's riding on this…if Ozai doesn't get his hands on that serum, then the whole galaxy's going to pay." He got up, brushed the dirt of his suit and began to walk out, "I'll leave you here awhile to…reconsider." He pressed his hand against the palm print scanner set on the door's 'wooden' frame, and left, letting the door automatically shut behind him.

Aang just lay there away, but eventually, he muttered, "Damn it, damn it, damn it; how could I have let this happen? What am I going to do?" He looked around the room and saw the razor sharp antlers on top mantle for the fire place, "…that could work." Aang mused thoughtfully…then pondered, "But how am I going to get to them while I'm tied to this freakin' chair?!"

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"So, where did you say where this thing was?" Zuko asked Sokka as the wandered the space port, searching for the ship that they had bought.

"Um, it says here L-42." Sokka reread the slip of paper that the previous owner had given him. "Crap, I can never read Bumi's hand writing…you'd think that the guy would have been a doctor instead of a geologist." Zuko only rolled his eyes at this, after all, hardly anyone actually wrote things anymore since email had become much more convenient…and more legible; that is, anyone but Bumi, who-for some reason-still clung to the old ways, then again, he had always been a little…out there. Then again, he is a part of the reason the boys had wanted to escape to the stars in the first place.

Zuko was shaken out of his thoughts by Sokka shaking his hand in front of his face, "Hello…Zuko? Can you help please?" Zuko shook his head to clear his thoughts, "Yeah, sure, just give me a second." Sokka shrugged and left, satisfied with that answer. After a few more minutes of searching, the duo had found it. It was roughly 35 feet high, with a spherical part at on the front that was around 30 feet high with a darkened reinforced glass that prevented them from seeing inside; the 15 foot by 15 foot entrance was along the left side, which was opened by a hand scanner set on the side, then there were six boosters that were influenced by a 'tail' on the end of the ship that helped define what direction as well as whether they would rise or decline in height. "Well, this is it…wanna check out the interior?" Zuko nodded and Sokka pressed his palm to the scanner, "Bumi claimed that he had already programmed it to acknowledge our prints, but knowing Bumi, it might not work…" Despite Sokka's skepticism, the door opened without difficulty. The interior was made of the same material that the outside was: gray colored metal plates. The inside was several rooms, with the piloting seat up ahead in the sphere at the front of the ship, the middle being a kitchen with a large pile of boxes that were storing tons of heat up dinners for the microwave in the kitchen, then there was a computer and a TV, plus a back room for the transport drive that would help cut down the distances between planets by clumping up time and space. Then there was a side dedicated to fuel and electricity to keep the ship going. "Cool." Was all that Sokka could say and Zuko could only nod as they got out.

"At least Bumi was kind enough to throw in some inventory to help us get started." Zuko said as they began to walk away from their ship. "Yeah, that was pretty nice of him-" Sokka got cut off as the thief from earlier passed by them. "Hey, what's up?" Zuko asked kindly while Sokka just glared at him. The kid glanced in their direction, then took off running again. "Well, that was rude." Zuko stated while Sokka just nodded in agreement. "Anyway, like I was saying-" Sokka got cut off yet again by a group of people running passed them saying things such as 'After him' and such as they ran in the direction that the thief had gone. "…that's not a good sign." Zuko said. Sokka nodded. They glanced at each other and immediately began to follow them.

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Aang couldn't believe he had been caught…again….five minutes after he had escaped the first time. Then again, in retrospect, he hadn't expected to suddenly be swallowed by the ground underneath him, did he? While he had been sprinting from the guards, he had found a route out of the port that involved him sprinting through a farmer's corn field…but that was meet with disastrous results made apparent from the minute he had stepped on the solid ground; after that step, there had been no ground, he fell into a pit, and then the opening closed and he was transported into a part of the park, the only area in the city that could allow trees to be grown without risk of being chopped down…it also made a rather nice mugging spot due to the low visibility. When he was pulled out of the ground, Xin Fu was standing there, smirking smugly with victory. "Long time no see boy. I hope you didn't miss our company." He stated sarcastically. "No, I'm afraid I didn't." Aang shot back. Xin Fu smacked him. "Nice one kid. Now, tell me where is the serum?" Aang took a few seconds to recover from the blow, then he said, "I don't have it anymore." "Then what did you do with it?" Xin Fu demanded through gritted teeth. "I had a friend of my send it out to the vacuum of space. Good luck finding it." Xin Fu's face was a look of horror, then he composed himself, "Is that so? Then I guess we don't need you alive any longer." From the earth, he pulled out a sharp spear composed of dirt and rock. Aang was shocked, "Ho-how did you do that? I thought I had destroyed the data for the 'bending' project…." Xin Fu laughed, "No, you only took the Avatar data, you didn't think to take all related project data, so it's only a matter of time before we recreate the serum, so your assistance is no longer required…so DIE!"

He launched the spear at Aang, whose feet were still in the ground; Aang quickly raised his arms to possible do something when…a boomerang flew through the air, knocked down the spear, and hit Xin Fu on its way back to its owner, "And that's when we step in." Sokka grinned as he walked out into the clearing. "Who the hell are you?" Xin Fu asked while Aang simultaneously demanded, "What the hell are you doing here moron?" "Trying to save your undeserving ass." Sokka replied with a mock hurt look on his face. He then turned his focus on Xin Fu, "So, you're the asshole that kidnapped my friend here…Xin Fu was it? You look better on TV." Sokka smirked. _Friend?_ Aang thought, _since when was I his friend? _Xin Fu only scowled and tried to have the earth swallow Sokka to, "Whoa!" Sokka grunted as he leaped into the air to avoid the hole; an action to which Xin Fu responded by hurling sharp rocks to nail Sokka in midair. Suddenly, Xin Fu felt a rush come from behind him, jump up, and knock the shrapnel away. "Zuko!" Sokka greeted as he landed, "Took you long enough." "Yeah, yeah, I'm here aren't I?" Zuko responded with an annoyed look on his face, "I was just fetching my swords from the apartment." It was true, in Zuko's hands were a pair of dual swords. "Swords and a boomerang? What the hell are you two, cavemen?" Xin Fu pondered angrily. Both Sokka and Zuko glared at him, "You know, even though lasers are considered the best weapons technology can offer, they still are nothing but hot light, so it is possible to reflect them back at their owners, like so." Zuko stated as he quickly turned and knocked a laser shot from the gun of one of Xin Fu's men that had hidden himself among the brush; a few seconds later, a quick yelp was heard and the sound of running followed. Xin Fu and Aang were both shocked at Zuko skill; a state that Sokka took advantage of. He quickly place a small explosive (a stun bomb model 943, serial date 2422) on top of his boomerang, quickly ran trough the mathematics in his mind, then he hurled it at Xin Fu, but in a way that it would arc behind him, following just beyond his vision, the stun bomb slid off and the boomerang nailed the man in the back of the head…but then fell to the ground. Xin Fu stepped forward while holding the back of his head where the boomerang had nailed him, only to be cut off by Zuko who began to slash at him with his blades, forcing Xin Fu to back up and step on the bomb.

The explosion was brief and it kicked up a dust cloud that began to cover the area. Sokka and Zuko heard Xin Fu scream and high-fived each other, thinking the battle won, and began to try and dig out Aang. After a few seconds of trying, however, the dust in the air seemed to begin to force its way into the duo's lungs. While they were on the ground gagging, Xin Fu appeared out from the dust cloud. "Nice plan, kiddies, but not to well thought out. You see, a dust cloud is simply little particles of earth floating through the air; particles that I can harness via my Earth serum and bend them to my will." Zuko and Sokka could only gasp in response; Xin Fu laughed, "Now die! Suffocate to death or, if you hold out long enough, I'll have to have the shards rip out of your lungs and go straight for your hearts." _Zuko…and Sokka; they tried to protect me, and now they're about to die because of it._ The image of the old man returned to his mind, _Gyatso, I'm sorry I couldn't save you, but maybe, I can help these guys instead!_ Suddenly, Aang's eyes began to take on a slight glow as he suddenly forced his way out of the ground. "What the hell?" Xin Fu yelled as he saw Aang free himself. "How did you-"realization dawned on him, "You little bastard! You injected the Avatar serum into yourself, didn't you?" Aang could only smirk slightly, "Yeah, that about sums it up." Xin Fu howled with rage and flung himself at Aang, who only stood his ground and –at the last minute-summoned a wall of earth for Xin Fu to slam into; Xin Fu collided with it and managed to hit it with enough force to shatter it. As he lay crumbled on the ground, Aang stalked over to him; Xin Fu saw this and backed away in horror, "Please…don't kill me, I don't want to die!" "Nether did Gyatso, but then, who does?" Aang summoned a large rock and positioned it above the fallen man and glared, "Go to hell." And brought it down…or at least, brought it down halfway. Xin Fu had fainted by then, so Aang just through the rock aside and turned it into a pair of handcuffs that covered Xin Fu's hands and feet, put them on him, and tied him to a tree. Naturally, he had already dispelled the earth from Zuko and Sokka's lungs as well as the dust cloud. With all that done, the glow left his gray eyes and he fell unconscious.

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"So…any idea what happened to that Xin Fu guy?" Aang shrugged carelessly as the three teenagers were sitting on the chairs back at Sokka's and Zuko's apartment. It had been three days since their fight against the drug lord; when Sokka and Zuko awoke, they noticed Aang on the ground unconscious with Xin Fu lying a few feet away. Zuko and Sokka were just about to kick his unconscious ass, but they then heard the police sirens, so they grabbed Aang, and ran like hell. "I dunno; the police haven't turned up anything. They didn't even find him where we conveniently left him!" Aang answered, and then returned to drinking his soda. Sokka just shrugged, "Who gives a crap? It's not like we're going to be running into him again, so why bother. He probably learned his lesson from when we kicked his ass, so I doubt that he will be trying anything soon." The other two shrugged at this and then there was silence.

"…so…" Aang began. "When are you two leaving?" "For space?" Aang nodded; Zuko shrugged, "Probably in a day or two. Why?" "I dunno." Aang mumbled and quickly took a sip from his drink. Sokka's eyes narrowed, "You want to come." He stated; Aang just spat out the soda he had been drinking, "What?! Who said I wanted that?!" "You did." Sokka smirked, "So why not?" "…why not what?" Aang asked, even though he knew the answer. "How about you come with us? With that Avatar serum, you could help make us unstoppable!" Sokka's mind was already working the possibilities. Aang looked to Zuko, who just shrugged, "I don't care; although, having more people might increase our chance of success." Aang was silent for a moment, taking in just what they were offering, and then said, "Well…I guess I could come; I mean, you guys needed me to save your asses from Xin Fu, who was basically one of the weakest members of the Fire Nation…" "He was?!" Both Sokka and Zuko asked simultaneously. "So, I guess I could help you out." "Yeah!" Sokka grinned while Zuko just said, "Welcome to the team." Aang nodded, then asked, "So where did you say we were going again?" Both Sokka and Zuko glanced at each other, "The heavens…and whatever is beyond!" The Avatar serum host couldn't help but grin while thinking: _Gyatso, you were right; maybe having dreams isn't so bad._

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"So, you say Xin Fu of the Earth branch has been defeated?" The Fire Lord Ozai himself asked the messenger. "Yes sir, the base has been invaded and the inventory captured by the police." The Fire Lord just waved his hand, dismissing the bad news, "The goods can be recovered; after all, today's police force is rather corrupt, plus our spies inside their organization can also help in their retrieval. No Sergeant, what I want to know of is the Avatar serum; has it been recovered along with the rest by the police as well?" The sergeant shook his head, "No sir, we actually don't know where it is." "What?!" The Fire Lord showed a fleeting expression of anger. "How did that happen?!" The Sergeant was shaking a little, but kept his composure, "Apparently, a thief somehow managed to infiltrate our operations there, caught wind of our plans, and stole it at the last minute. We do have identification on him though." "Really? Then what is his name?" "He goes by Aang Gyatso; the adopted son of 'Monk' Gyatso." Ozai's eyes widened with recognition, "Ah, so he's his brat…no wonder he caught wind of the serum." There was a slight pause, then he ordered, "Find him. We find him, we find the serum. If there are any people with them, kill them; I don't care how you do it, just make it happen!" The Sergeant nodded, bowed, and left the room, leaving the mafia head to stare out the window into space's infinite reaches from his throne in his rather large chamber.

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**Well, that's it! Personally, while I wrote this, for some reason, it had begun to seem like the first chapter of a beginning manga series (It could just be me though). I hoped you enjoyed it! If you have any corrections or opinions on this, feel free to click the magic button to review and let me know! **

**Read and Review…or I'll…SUE YA!! **


	2. Chapter 2

"…well, this is a problem…" Sokka stated calmly as APPA flew at a steady speed through the lifeless, dark, and dangerous void

**Hey everybody, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here. After some time of thinking and some encouraging words, I've decided to continue this story. Now, since it's my first, it may not live up to what I want it to be, but if people want me to keep going with it, please feel free to let me know (and if you have any advice, that would be nice as well.). Now that's over, on with the Fanfiction!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything outside of the plot…which may not be worth as much as I would like.**

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**Dreams: Sokka's Homecoming**

"…well, this is a problem…" Sokka stated calmly as APPA flew at a steady speed through the lifeless, dark, and dangerous void of space. Outside the window of the living room-like room between the spherical cockpit and the engine room, distant stars freckled the darkness of space; Sokka was staring at these distant dots of light, pondering just what they were going to do.

"No duh man! We're now on the Fire Nation's most wanted list! Do you have any idea of what that means? They have practically infinite resources, contacts, the whole nine yards! So, what are we going to do?" Aang, a bald, thirteen year old thief who happened to have experience with the Fire Nation, one of the –if not the- biggest mafia families in the whole galaxy, pressed.

Now, there was an excellent question: just what were they going to do? If what Aang was saying was true –of that, Sokka had no doubt due to their own little run in with one of the many bosses of the outer branches of the Fire Nation-, then how were they going to confront them? He, Aang, and Zuko were by no means going to be enough to take on a 'family' that has be in power for over a hundred years! And, at this point, there was no way for the trio to simply isolate themselves enough to prevent the Fire Nation from discovering where they were (that would involve them isolating themselves completely, since they wouldn't even be able to buy supplies without the Fire Nation finding out…hell, they couldn't even buy an ice cream cone without having a hundred or so agents hearing about it), the laying low strategy wouldn't end well….

Sokka sighed, he really didn't want to do this, but what choice did they have? "Hey Zuko, you listening?" "Yeah." Came the brief reply from the cockpit; Zuko, since Sokka couldn't make heads or tails of the controls and they sure as hell weren't going to let a thirteen year old drive, had been deemed the pilot. "Change course from the W Hole and start heading towards Water Tribe S." There was a brief silence, and then "You sure?" Zuko asked as he turned his seat around to face his two passengers. Sokka nodded, Zuko sighed, and got to work.

Aang, meanwhile was confused, "The W Hole? What the hell is that?" "Back when the human race first began to travel through space, it took them a little while to calm down enough to remember that planets are millions to billions of miles apart; once they did, however, they began to work on a means to shorten the distance considerably. What emerged from that research was our good old Drive," he nodded towards the engine room. ", and the Worm Hole. After learning how to create a worm hole, which is basically a hole through time and space, they tried to create them at various points in space as to shorten the distance between planets and how much time it would take to get there." "Oh." Aang said, understanding…but then he asked, "So…what's on Water Tribe S?"

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked.

"Well, Zuko seemed kind of worried when you brought it up, and you seemed hesitant to go there, so what's the deal?" Sokka shrugged off the question and just turned his head enough so he could stare out the window.

"God, what a teenager." Aang muttered as he pulled his baseball cap down over his eyes and tried to take a nap.

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The total trip was about roughly one day; so, by that time, Aang had gotten bored and was now flipping through the TV channels in a faint hope that there would be something good on to distract him. While he was doing that, Sokka and Zuko were discussing something that, for some reason, didn't include him. He sighed and gave up, turning off the TV and thinking about just who he had teamed up with.

Sure, they had tried to save his life from Xin Fu, but to be honest, he barely knew anything about them at all. When he had decided to go along with them for their little journey to the stars, it had been a little bit of a spur of the moment sort of thing. Just who were these guys? Where did they come from? Were they both from Earth or maybe one of the many colonized planets out there or what? Did they have siblings? Parents? Aang didn't know. And then there was the Avatar serum….

Aang quickly tried to shake his head clear of such thoughts; when he had fought Xin Fu, he had not been himself at the time: he hadn't been in control of his actions. To be honest, he couldn't really remember what had happened in that fight beyond him escaping from his prison while Sokka and Zuko were choking and then…nothing. He wondered what he done to himself exactly when he had injected himself with the serum that Gyatso had given him before he had died, in vain attempt to stop the Fire Nation from getting it back…as well as hoping that Gyatso had somehow managed to get rid of the data; but if that was the case, then the Fire Nation was getting close to recreating it if Xin Fu's ability to manipulate the earth, as if he was bending it to his will (Aang liked the word 'bending', so he then decided that that would be what he would call the ability from then on). Hopefully, he would learn more about how to control his abilities with practice.

"Hey Aang!" Sokka's call was loud enough to shake Aang from his thoughts. "Yeah?" "We're entering the planet's atmosphere, so you better put on your harness." "Yeah, yeah…whatever." Aang muttered as he got up, grabbed a bungee jumping suit and strapped himself in. Apparently, despite its odd appearance, the suit would somehow keep him in place while they went burning through the planet's atmosphere like a freefalling meteor…hopefully they wouldn't end up like one too.

A few minutes of shaking and rattling and they were safe; they quickly removed their harnesses and got ready to land. Aang looked out the window to try and get a peek at this new world…but there wasn't much to see. The land was covered in ice and snow, the water below them had a bunch of icebergs, and there were penguins…everywhere. "So…I'm guessing this place isn't that warm, huh?" Aang said to Sokka. Sokka just rolled his eyes and walked over to where Zuko was trying to find a place where they could land. "There's a port right up ahead. Just keep going in this direction." Zuko nodded and adjusted a few settings; Sokka just sighed and heading back to where Aang was sitting on the couch. "So…do you know this planet?" Aang asked curiously. Sokka replied, "Oh yeah, I know it _real_ well." Before Aang could press him anymore, Zuko announced that they were about to land.

Once they landed, one of the walls opened up, so Aang and Sokka were immediately hit by a cold breeze. "Damn! It's freezing here!" Aang cried while hugging himself for warmth. Sokka just sighed, "I guess spring's already started here." "What?! This is spring?!" Aang exclaimed in disbelief. Sokka nodded and threw him a coat, then grabbed two and threw one to Zuko, who was just walking out of the cockpit. "Nice flying." Sokka remarked as they finished zipping up the coats. Zuko only nodded, due to him being practically frozen from the cold temperature. Both he and Aang were shivering as the three teenagers walked through the snow towards what looked like a village filled with people and huts…even two or three regular buildings. Sokka noticed and sighed, "Man, you two are wimps. This is hardly the coldest it gets to be around here." "Sh…shut…u…up." Aang said through chattering teeth.

After a few more minutes, the trio walked into the village, with few people wearing similar coats and gear were staring at them in surprise; then again, seeing two rather pale guys, one of which having a burn that covered almost a half of his face, while the rest of the people had…a skin tone similar to Sokka's. They were actually staring at him more so then the other two. Aang took note of this, but didn't think that now was the best time to bring it up. Instead, he looked at the village: it had been built in a circular fashion, with a wall to the sea surrounding the place, the huts and regular buildings were placed evenly from each other, in what seemed to be a random fashion and huts were at least twice the size of Aang, who was about 5 foot 5 inches. The huts were all made of black material though; Aang guessed that it had to do with collecting the sun's heat for the interior, but he didn't know whether that was the case or not.

Sokka led the way to a building that seemed to be positioned in the center of the village; the building was grayish in color and seemed just as tall as the wall, which was roughly about thirty feet up. There were multiple windows surrounding the building's exterior, and an automated sliding steel door was at the base of the building so people could get in. The door opened, Sokka took a quick breath, and entered. Aang and Zuko followed him.

As soon as they entered, Aang noticed that the building was heated. He quickly stripped his coat, boots, and gloves and basked in the warmth. Zuko was doing the same a second later. Sokka just rolled his eyes and quickly scanned the room: The interior color was the same as the outside, but there were chairs and stools with outdated magazines next to those chairs, and then there was a reception window, which is what Sokka immediately made a dash for. He rang the bell and waited; fortunately, it didn't take long. A girl, who looked like she was a year younger then Sokka, with the same skin tone and blue eyes, came out. She was wearing a pair of jeans with a t-shirt and sneakers…but what really caught Sokka's eye was the weird hair…loopies (for there was no other word to describe them) that connected the hair from the hair covering her forehead and that of the hair braided into a ponytail in the back.

"I'm sorry sir, but the doctor is busy right now so you are going to have to take a seat for a while." She didn't even glance at Sokka, she just wrote stuff down on a pad of paper. "Hi Katara." Sokka greeted. "Mister, I'm not interested, so you better…" She looked up and her eyes widened, her mouth left open in mid sentence. "Long time no see." Sokka grinned as he waved to her. "Sokka?" She asked, still surprised. "Yep, that's me, so how's it…" He got interrupted by Katara's fist nailing him in the face.

The blow knocked him backward and caused him to fall on his butt; naturally, this had Aang and Zuko's attention. They hurried over to their friend's side and helped him get up; Sokka was holding his nose, trying to keep the blood from spilling out onto the floor. "Hey, what the hell are you doing, you crazy bi…" Sokka silenced Aang and then said, "Well, I guess I deserved that." Katara was already in the waiting room, walking straight towards them, looking rather pissed off. "_**You**__**guess?!**_ After you ran off for _three years!!_ You never called us, never wrote, or even an e-mail or a text message…FOR THREE YEARS!! We didn't even know if you were alive!!" She yelled at Sokka while he just stood there holding his nose, not even trying to make any excuses. Suddenly, the door next to the reception window opened, "Katara, I've just finished up with the last patient, so if you can put that down in your records and close up shop, that would be great." An old woman sporting similar hair loopies walked out.

She looked roughly around sixty to sixty-five, she also had blue eyes, gray hair, a white lab coat, and she seemed to be around Katara's height. "Katara, did you hear…me." Her eyes widened as she dropped the clipboard she had been carrying at the sight before her.

"Hey Gran Gran." Sokka waved while making sure his nose had stopped bleeding. "…Sokka…" She said, shock still apparent across her wrinkled face. "Yeah, it's Sokka, come back from the dead. But what I want to know is where the hell were you for these three years? Where's Suki? Didn't you run off with her?" Katara demanded. Sokka's eyes narrowed slightly at the mention that name, but he didn't say anything.

Now, Aang was REALLY confused. Zuko and Aang stood off to the side of the room, watching this reunion unfold. Zuko was staring, silent, but Aang could tell that he was feeling sorry for his friend; but then he wondered why Zuko seemed to have gotten so quiet, it must have been the cold temperature…but that didn't answer who these people were. "So Zuko…who are they?" "His sister and their grandmother." He answered curtly. "So…Sokka used to live here?" Zuko nodded, "He didn't really tell me much about his life here, but he did tell why he left." Aang waited for Zuko to continue…and waited. Finally, he asked, "So why did he leave? Who was this Suki person? Where is she now?" Zuko shrugged, "Why don't you ask Sokka?" "But he's busy right now. Could you tell me?" Zuko shook his head, "Maybe later, but not now." Aang shrugged, satisfied with that response, and went back to watching Sokka getting his ass handed to him by his grandma and his sister.

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Sokka moaned slightly as Aang pressed a frozen steak to his head. After a few more snippets of conversation, Sokka's grandmother offered them a room in the clinic; Katara still seemed angry about the whole thing and had mad her feelings apparent by punching Sokka in the head before storming out. Gran Gran, after hearing about the serum Aang had injected into himself, had offered to give him an examination; an offer that Aang had decided to take her up on. She was examining said data as they were sitting in their room.

Zuko was just sitting in an armchair, flipping through the manual for APPA as well as checking on his laptop for possible bids on upgrades that they could purchase…when they actually had money of course. The room they were currently in was dull in color with two beds, an armchair, a table, and a lamp. There was a bathroom down the hall. Sokka and Zuko had managed to talk Aang into sleeping in the armchair for time being; they had called upon their authority as the oldest of the group to delegate who got what bed. When Aang had protested, Sokka had calmly offered him a bed of snow outside; after that, Aang just muttered about it, but had accepted it nonetheless.

_I wonder where that girl is…_, Aang thought to himself, remembering Sokka's sister. _I hope she's okay…. _She had seemed genuinely angry about Sokka's sudden return…as to why that was, Aang had yet to discover. This was mostly because Aang had yet to work up the guts to approach the topic after seeing how Sokka had reacted to it when his sister had brought it up. Aang just sighed and subconsciously applied more force to the steak then he needed to. "Ow! Be careful with that!" Sokka complained as Aang hurriedly tried to correct his mistake…but then he thought of something.

"No." He replied as he put more force on it.

"No?! What do you mean 'no'?"

"Not until you tell me who this Suki is." Aang demanded, knowing that he was trending on dangerous ground. Zuko had stopped reading and was watching the spectacle before him. Sokka's eyes narrowed slightly, but then he sighed, "Fine, it's not like it's a secret or anything. You were going to find out eventually, so it's no big deal." He paused. "Suki…was this girl I had met this one time while I was visiting a space port with my dad, who works for the Galatical Federation as a police chief that is currently trying to crack down on mob activity, and I sort of insulted her and she kicked my ass. As it turns out, she was an instructor at a local dojo; so I went and picked up a few moves…." For some strange reason, Zuko chuckled at this, as if remembering something particularly funny that Sokka wasn't mentioning.

Sokka just glared at him…or at least, glared as well as he could with one eye, and then continued, "We kept in contact, but eventually I began to want to explore; I was beginning to get sick and tired of just the same old ice and snow. I wanted to see space! The ships, other worlds, you know. But since I didn't know anything about what the world outside was like, I enlisted her help. She helped me get off the planet and we sort of began to travel like that for one or two years, but then she…" Sokka stopped and was silent for a few minutes. "Anyway, there you go." Aang waited a few seconds.

"So…she was your girlfriend?" Sokka shrugged, "I guess you could consider her that, if you wanted to." There were a few more minutes of silence…at least until Sokka's grandmother knocked on the door. She opened it and walked in, "Aang, I've finished my research of the data that I got from your examination, and frankly…it's incredible. Come with me, all of you." With that, she turned around and walked back out, as if she assumed that they would loyally follow her commands. _She must be Sokka's grandma_, Aang thought as he got up and, followed by Zuko and Sokka, walked out the door.

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After walking down a few hallways and flights of stairs, the group entered a room that was filled with equipment and doctor's utensils; Aang guessed that it was the place where 'Gran Gran' conducted her business and patients. She waved them over to a computer screen with various photos of Aang and him attempting to recreate the poses he had done against Xin Fu.

"Now then, Aang here told me about this serum thing that he injected into himself; naturally, he couldn't tell anything at all about the components that made up said serum, but that doesn't matter for the conclusion that we are attempting to reach, which is how Aang –as he calls it- 'bends' the elements around him." Aang seemed slightly confused by the way she worded it, but Sokka and Zuko were nodding their heads in understanding, so Aang just went along with it.

"From what I interpreted from the story that you three told me about this fight against an 'earth bender', I have to say that the serum utilizes the body's natural energy and extends it into the elements around it. Depending on the type of serum you have, your 'chi' would be affected in different ways, making it more efficient with a certain kind of element."

"But how does your chi leave your body?" Sokka asked.

"The pores that are all over your body; as I stated earlier, the serum enables you to control your chi, extend it out of your body, and into that of the particular element you have, effectively linking your motions to the element, not unlike that of a puppeteer manipulating the strings of his puppet."

Once again, Aang didn't quite understand what she was explaining, but pretended to anyway. "Now in Aang's case, the extent of the serum wasn't just limited to one element; they were trying to make it effective to all the main elements. So when it was injected, it wasn't nearly as stable as having only one, which by itself is risky, so when Aang was about to be killed, he summoned the power that the serum had given him, but he took the full power of the elements at his disposal, without having any previous practice or mastery of them; so his body reacted, in an attempt to prevent his mind from being over run, by putting him in a semi conciseness state or auto pilot, so he wasn't able to control his actions."

Silence met this revelation while the trio tried to take it in; until Sokka asked, "You said that he was capable of summoning this power, right? Would it be possible to have him master this state and use all four elements when ever he wants?"

She thought for a moment, and then answered, "Yes. Right now? No. If he tried to use all four now, it may destroy his mind or leave him unable to control himself. With time and mastery of one element at a time, however, would probably be able to have him get used to it and, eventually, able to use all four at any time. But he first needs to work with only one, to get his body to adjust to the kind of chi it needs to put out, and with time, he can move on to the next one." This answer seemed to satisfy everyone; Aang felt unsure about the repercussions the act of using the elements could lead to, but if they were ever going to be able to bring down the Fire Nation, then he was going to have to try. With that, Gran Gran showed them the door, looked back, and shut off the lights.

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With that done, Gran Gran offered them to stay for dinner; with the crew of the APPA well aware of just how many rations they had left, they were quick to take her up on the offer. After she had lead them down a few more halls, they found that she had lead them to the room where she and Katara lived; the apartment was humble, with a kitchen, a table that had plates and such scattered on it, a TV, and two doorways, which one had the sounds of a shower running coming out whereas the other was where the two slept.

"Gran Gran? That you?" Called Katara from the bathroom; the shower shut off and they heard a door open and close. "I was wonder when you were going to get back; so, am I making dinner tonight or are you…?" She asked as she emerged with a towel wrapped around her. When she saw that her grandmother wasn't alone, she quickly jumped back into the bathroom and shut the door. Sokka was trying hard not to laugh, Gran Gran looked amused, Zuko had adverted his eyes to a spot on the floor that had suddenly gotten interesting, and Aang was just staring into the spot where she had once stood, amazed by what he had seen.

After some apologizing and death threats were exchanged, the five people had at last settled down for dinner; apparently, they were going to be eating a water tribe delicacy. Once Aang saw it however, his appetite disappeared and he just gave his plate to Sokka, who was eating as if it were his last meal…a concept that could have been deemed ridiculous except, with the glares Katara was giving him, it might have been.

Once the meal was over (and Aang had found some chips to eat instead), there was a sort of awkward silence that filled the room. "So…Sokka, just what were you up to since I last saw you?" Their grandmother asked, trying to break the ice. He shrugged in response, "Well, I got to travel a lot, seeing some sights and visiting famous space ports and stuff like that. Well, that lasted for a year, until Suki and I –you remember Suki? She visited here a few times…" Once Gran Gran nodded affirmative, Sokka continued.

"Well, she was the one who happened to be traveling with me, and when we got to this one port on earth –you've heard of Ba Sing Se, right?-, some things happened and Suki ended up disappearing; we just happened to be unlucky people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a fight broke out between two of the local gangs in the area. Well, she ended up joining just to protect us so that we wouldn't get hurt in the bedlam, and during the fight, I lost track of her. Once the fight was over, I tried to look for her, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find her. I would have gone after both the gangs that were fighting (I wasn't really being realistic at that point, I was just pissed and determined), but I ended up being preoccupied by something…" For some reason, both he and Zuko glanced at each other at this statement; an action that wasn't missed by the attentive Aang and Katara. "By the time I was ready, both the gangs had skipped town, heading off to another planet in an attempt to escape the cops, and I ended up sticking around Ba Sing Se, not able to afford anything due to Suki being the one who happened to handle our money, and have been there ever since. I wasn't able to call or anything due to all my money going towards just keeping me alive." With that explanation, Sokka fell silent.

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The next day, Sokka announced that they were leaving. He said it was because they would need to hurry before the wormhole would be reset to a different location in the galaxy, thus ruining their planned route, but Aang suspected that Sokka just wanted to leave the planet itself, but didn't say anything. The trio ended up sticking around for lunch at Gran Gran's insistence, but after that, they found themselves back in the lobby, pulling back on their gear and coats. Katara and their grandmother were standing there as the teenagers prepared; once they were done, the two approached them.

"Sokka, where you may be off to is anyone's guess, but if you see your dad along the way…" Sokka nodded, understanding what she wanted him to do without her saying it. Aang looked questioningly at Zuko, who whispered, "His father hasn't been home ever since Sokka was ten; he only visited occasionally to take Sokka and Katara to a near by space port or whatever. His job has kept him away for all this time." Aang nodded, understanding now. None of them noticed Katara slipping back behind the reception desk.

"Zuko, I want you to look after Sokka…" "What else is new? That's all I've been doing ever since I met him." Zuko responded while Sokka glared at him pointedly. She just laughed and moved on to Aang.

"Aang, if you truly want to master the 'Avatar' abilities you've acquired, just do as I've prescribed: pick one element to start with and master it, and then just repeat the process. Naturally, I would recommend a teacher to help you on an element or two, but the likelihood of that is…well, you know." She patted him on the shoulder and turned to leave when the door next to the reception window opened.

Katara emerged, where her coat, gear, and carrying a backpack filled with what looked like supplies. She looked past Zuko and Aang and said to her brother, "I've not forgiven you for what you did, but from what you guys have said, it sounds like you are going to need some help." "Katara…" She cut him off, "And even if you weren't going up against the Fire Nation, I would still follow you. For all I know, after it's over, you wouldn't even come back here. So I'm going with you to ensure that you come home." Sokka was speechless, but he seemed to understand the main reason she wanted to come; he nodded, "Fine, but you'll find that our ship isn't really that big, so for now, some of the bigger medicines will have to be left behind." She rolled her eyes, "Obviously. I assumed that any ship that you would be able to afford wouldn't have room, so I packed with that already in mind." Sokka didn't know whether to be insulted or not.

Gran Gran just shook her head, as if she had expected this to happen. She walked up to Katara, hugged her, and mumbled something into Katara's ear, but the trio wasn't able to make it out. Katara nodded and headed out the door, quickly followed by Zuko and Aang; Sokka hung back for a second, and then began to walk through the door when Gran Gran said, "Sokka…" "Yeah?" "Be nice to your sister." With that, she patted him on the back and left. "Gotcha Grandma, I got it." Sokka muttered as he quickly ran to catch up with the rest of the crew.

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After they had taken off and had showed Katara around the ship, Aang remembered something, "Hey Zuko." "Yeah?" he called from the pilot's seat. "How come you laughed when Sokka brought up Suki's dojo?" Sokka gave Zuko a warning glare, but Zuko paid it no heed. "Well, you see, Suki's dojo was a women only dojo, so in order for her to teach Sokka some moves, she had Sokka dress like a woman. It was quite the sight." Katara and Aang were silent for a moment, glanced at each other, then glanced at Sokka's reddening face, picturing what he would have looked like…and then burst out laughing.

"Hey, shut up!" Sokka yelled. "I'll never look at him the same!" Aang laughed. "Why Sokka, I didn't know you were into that sort of thing. I would have loaned you some clothes if you really wanted…" Katara began, but was cut off as Sokka threw a bottle of water at her. "Silence!" He yelled as he jumped at them, and the APPA continued its silent flight toward the wormhole and, what was going to be, their destinies.

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**Well, chapter two is done, now time to move on to chapter three! I wonder what's going to happen on the first major space port that the brave crew of the APPA is going to. Maybe a bounty hunter? Some grim news may be thrown in as well, so read Dreams Chapter Three, coming to a Fanfiction Site near you! **

**Remember, if you have any complaints, ideas, or advice, please let me know!**

**Read and Review or I'll…SUE YA!! **


	3. Chapter 3

"Whoa…" Aang said aloud as the crew of the APPA got out of the ship

**Hey there, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here! Here's the third chapter of Dreams and, with this chapter, kicks off the story's first story arc! Naturally, it may only be one to three chapters long due to my lack of ability to make stories long, so if anyone has any ideas, don't hesitate to mention them! On with the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of its characters…I only own some of the DVDs.**

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**Chapter 3: The Fire Nation Bounty Hunter**

"Whoa…" Aang said aloud as the crew of the APPA got out of the ship. After making a pit stop by Sokka's planet, they had made a straight bee line to the next port before the wormhole that would send them off to some distant point off in the galaxy; they would need supplies, especially since they now were traveling with a fourth person.

The city before them was so enormous, it had to be close to the size of Ba Sing Se! There were clusters of buildings shoved together, with a huge variety of architecture styles and height levels. It was called Babylon, after the ancient civilization.

"Remember Aang, we aren't going to be here long. We are only going to pick up some supplies and get something to eat." Zuko reminded as he walked up to his friend, gazing out the window.

The room they were standing in was similar to that of a regular air port: there were chairs, fake plastic plants, and a launch pad that the crew had used as a place to park. The walls and ceiling were all a light brown color with some portraits placed on the walls to try and look 'homey'; to Sokka, they were only annoyances.

Said person finished stretching. "Hey, we also need info on the Fire Nation!" He walked up to his companions, followed closely by his sister, "We need to find someone who, with enough incentive, will give us some information on them. Like their goals, how the hell they made these serums, and what they're up to. I'll be in charge of that."

Everyone nodded, and then Katara spoke up, "Okay, whatever. But when are we going to eat? I'm sick of the microwave crap we've been eating for the past few days." Aang and Zuko laughed while Sokka glared slightly at her.

"Fine, whatever. How about we all go get something to eat, and then talk about what our next move is going to be?" Zuko suggested while moving towards the door. The other three glanced at each other and then hurriedly followed him.

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Aang was blown away by all the people they encountered on their search for a restaurant; after all, when he lived in Ba Sing Se, he wasn't really able to take in the reality of the sheer number of people there were due to him thinking about who to rob from next to get his next meal.

The crew did indeed run into a lot of people (some literally), but they also had to dodge hover car traffic, bikers, hover boarders, and the occasional old person. They walked down the sidewalks, looking at buildings and asking people for directions to any restaurants that they knew.

After learning a few new choice words, they eventually discovered (with the help of a local cabbage merchant) a bar and grill called The Jasmine Dragon. When they got there, however, they weren't that impressed.

The bar was, on the outside at least, made of brick with a painted sign with a green dragon swirling out the words 'The Jasmine Dragon' with a tea cup steaming in the corner of the sign, and the inside was mostly covered with wood and various pieces of liter laying on the floor. There were several booths along the wall, but the center was taken up by a bar with stools surrounding it. An elderly man was sitting on one of the stools with a younger man serving him.

The younger man looked around Zuko's height with dark hair and cloths, with fuzz all over his face indicating that he didn't shave that often if at all, and he looked bored out of his mind. The older man, however, was dressed in graying cloths and hair, wore a large hat that covered most of his head, and had a beard that went down to his chest.

The crew looked around the place suspiciously, but then Sokka shrugged and walked over to the bar and took a seat near the old man; the others followed suit. The server purposefully decided to ignore them…at least, he did until Katara threw something in his direction to get his attention.

"Yes?" He asked her with a bump developing on the side of his head. "We need some food." She replied vaguely. The server waited…and waited.

"So…what kind of food do you want?" The man asked through gritted teeth.

"Umm, do you have anything that's not meat?" Aang asked. _Crap…a vegetarian_, the server thought to himself. "No." Sokka was staring at Aang in a new light, "You're a _vegetarian_?" Aang nodded.

"Yeah, what about it?" he glared at Sokka, who simply shook his head in disbelief. The rest ordered their meals and the server left to tell the cook that it was finally time to get off his ass and actually earn his pay.

"So…" Zuko began as soon as the server had left. "Where do you think that we will find anyone who would be willing to tell us about the Fire Nation?" The old man sitting near them made a choking noise; apparently, some tea had gone down the wrong pipe.

Sokka shrugged, "I don't know. After we eat, I plan to go out towards the slum part of town and ask around…in disguise of course." The others looked confused as Sokka reached into his satchel that he had begun to wear only recently. When he faced the others, he was wearing a long beard that went to about his chest and covered his sideburns. "Wang Fire, at your service." He replied in an exaggerated low tone.

The others just stared in horror, "Sokka, you don't really think that someone would fall for that, do you?" Katara asked in disbelief.

"Come on Katara, why do you have to be so pessimistic? This is going to work!" The rest of the crew just shook their heads and knew that they would need to watch out for the people that Sokka would be 'fooling'.

The server had chosen then to show up with their food (and in Aang's case, a set of directions to the local cabbage merchant), and suddenly looked around, "Hey, where did the tall, skinny one go? I have his BBQ ribs, but…whatever." Sokka flashed a triumphant smirk at his friends and took the ribs.

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"Okay, that food was good…compared to the microwave crap we usually have." Katara said as they made their way back to the Babylon landing docks.

"Are you kidding? The food sucked!"

"Aang, that's because you ate the old cabbage that the merchant was just about to throw because he was willing to give it to you for free!" Aang pouted as they continued their way to their ship.

As soon as they arrived, Sokka quickly changed cloths and, while leaving his goggles behind, put on his beard and began to leave the ship. "Okay, while I'm gone, you guys need to pick up some supplies; Zuko has the list, and then you need to meet me back here."

"Are you sure you want to go out there this close to nightfall?" Zuko asked. Sokka shrugged.

"I don't see the harm. Besides, the kind of people who would have that kind of information will probably be coming out about now." The rest decided against challenging his logic…they all knew it was useless, he would end up going anyway.

"Fine, but be sure to meet us back here." Katara said with a stern tone in her voice.

"Okay, I got you. Trust me, this won't take that long." He gave them all a confident grin and then exited out the door.

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Sokka stumbled out of the bar he had been in, sporting a few bruises and a black eye; the sounds of fighting could still be heard as he limped down the street. The area was a normal city street…except it had no street lights…and trash and graffiti littered the streets and walls…and there were suspicious looking people walking around, looking as though they would try to still his wallet the minute he looked away.

The night had not gone nearly as well as he had hoped; he had been in several bars already and had gotten kicked out of some and had gotten the crap kicked out of him at the rest. For some reason, people seemed to fear the name Fire Nation and would deny any association with it. Frankly, Sokka was hoping that he would find someone that could help him eventually (he was getting sick of getting beaten up).

He spotted another bar down the street. _Maybe I'll have some luck there_, he thought to himself, _if not, then I give up_. Sokka slowly made his way down the dark street, towards the bar with a glowing neon sigh…however, Sokka wasn't willing to bother trying to read what it said.

When he actually reached the place, the first thing he noticed was that most of the windows were boarded shut and the door was made of metal. _That…is not a good sign_, Sokka thought as he climbed up the stone steps to the door and knocked. Eventually, a slot slid open and a pair of eyes peered down on him, sizing him up.

Whoever it was most have been satisfied because the slot closed and the door opened. Sokka wearily entered, immediately taking in his surroundings. The bar was along the south wall with a door next to it. The rest of the room was taken up by sets of tables and such and was dimly lit by a few lamps.

There were a few patrons sitting along the bar as well as some at the tables; all of them looked rough and tattoos and piercings covering the skin that was visible. Most were men, but there were a few women there as well…one of which was sitting at the bar. She had dark hair, light skin, and was wearing dark clothing with a sleeveless shirt and dark gloves that went above her elbows and a spiral tattoo on her right arm. Sokka sighed as he sat next to her and ordered something (he wasn't going to drink, but it would seem odd if he didn't at least get a drink).

After it came, he played with the straw it came with for a second, trying to think of something to say, when finally, "Hey." The woman looked in his direction, "Yes?" Sokka thought quickly and carefully about what to say next…, "They have nice…drinks here, huh?" He made a small gesture to his drink.

"Yeah." She said and the conversation lapsed into silence. "So," Sokka began, "What's your name?"

"June. Yours?" "Wang Fire" she laughed; Sokka was comically appalled. "What's wrong with my name?!"

She stopped laughing and had a serious expression on her face, "We both know that's not your real name, so how about you come clean now and save yourself some pain?" Sokka didn't know what to do, so he quickly said, "I don't know what you're talking about!" She sighed, her expression unchanging. Sokka eventually caved and told her.

"So…your name is Sokka?" he nodded. "So 'Sokka', what do you want?" "I need to find someone who has information on the Fire Nation." He stated. June's expression changed and Sokka thought he saw some odd emotion in her eyes.

"Really? I happen to know a few people that would be able to answer your questions." Sokka looked at her, surprised. "Really?" She nodded, "Follow me." She got up and began to move towards the door on the side of the bar. Sokka looked after her hesitantly, while she gestured for him to follow her. He sighed, quickly turning on his cell phone and prayed to God that he could trust her, and followed her out of the bar.

The door they had gone through lead to some alleyway with trash cans and other various things along that line were scattered along the pavement with worn out posters covering the brick walls in the alleyway between the buildings. She lead him down it and out onto the street.

They didn't have far to go, because within five minutes, they had reached a shut down garage that Sokka guessed used to fix cars. She unlocked the door with a key that she had, opened the door, and gestured for Sokka to enter. He slowly went in and she followed, while shutting the door behind them; Sokka heard a soft click as she relocked the door.

"Why are you locking the door?" "No reason, we wouldn't want anyone to eavesdrop." She walked farther into the garage; Sokka then began to take a look his surroundings. The garage was dimly lit with some empty tool benches along the walls…but those weren't what got Sokka's attention. There was a huge animal…that looked kind of like an anteater. "What the hell is that thing?!" She stroked the animal, "It's my shirshu." Suddenly, the thing's tongue lashed out at Sokka, who barely dropped to the ground in time.

He was already pulling out his phone…only to see that he didn't have any service. "Damn it!" he hissed as he dodged another lash of the thing's tongue; however, his left arm got nicked. When he tried to move, he noticed that he wasn't able to move his left arm. "What the hell? I can't move my arm!"

"The shirshu's tongue releases toxins into its prey once it hits them with its tongue, temporarily paralyzing them." "Why-" "Because you were trying to look into the Fire Nation. My orders are to capture anyone who tries to find them…especially when they are traveling with the Avatar host." Sokka was so surprised that he stopped moving for a second, giving the shirshu enough time to nail him right in the chest.

He collapsed onto the ground, his phone clattering to the floor. June stalked over to him while he grunted, "Ho…how did you…?" "…know? Easy, that beard is such a poor disguise that I saw through it immediately; you wanting information on the Fire Nation only confirmed it. You see, my bosses had just recently sent me some descriptions of people they wanted found…dead or alive. You were among them. So, how about you tell me where the Avatar host is?"

Sokka was silent for a moment, then grinned quietly to himself, _Guess you were right Katara_, he thought. As she came closer to him, unfurling a whip that he hadn't noticed her having, he could only find himself saying, "Aw…shit."

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The next morning, Sokka didn't come back. The rest of the crew had stayed up waiting for him, but Aang eventually went to sleep. Katara and Zuko, however, waited until the sun had risen, by then, they had to admit that something had gone wrong.

"He must have run into trouble." Zuko stated as they heated up breakfast.

"You think?!" Katara snapped, "I just want to know why he hasn't called. If I know my brother, when he's in trouble, he has no problem calling someone to get him out of it."

As the two began to argue, Aang was thinking about what could have happened to his friend. Sure, Sokka wasn't the most competent person in the galaxy, but he wasn't this irresponsible; he must have known that Zuko and Katara would be going nuts if he didn't make some kind of contact. So what the hell? Unless…. "Hey guys?"

The two older teens looked at Aang, "What?" They asked. "If Sokka was looking for the Fire Nation, what if he let something slip? If the wrong people heard him, then they could have gone after him or if they were Fire Nation, then maybe capture him to find out why he wanted the information. Or he could have been recognized; after all, the Fire Nation wants us gone…or at least in their hands." Silence greeted these theories.

Zuko eventually stood up, "I'm going to go look for him." He went towards the door, grabbing his swords as he passed them. Katara got up, "I'm going too." Zuko shook his head, "No, you need to stay here and guard Aang."

"No! He's my brother!" "Yes, but what if someone came here while we were gone?! They would take Aang and possibly the ship!" "How about I come with both of you?" Aang meekly suggested. Zuko and Katara both looked like they were about to protest, but eventually, they seemed to accept the idea.

Aang nodded, satisfied. "Okay then," he hopped to his feet and began to walk out the door, "Let's go find Sokka." The other two followed wordlessly.

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The three teenagers looked for hours, but they had no luck. They asked around, even remembering to mention the obviously false beard that Sokka had thought would work as a disguise, but they had no real success.

They decided to try one last place, but if they couldn't find anything there, then they would have to get the police involved and all three wanted to avoid that.

The place that they found was made of brick with an illegible neon sign and a few boarded up windows. After they entered, the first thing that they noticed was that there weren't a lot of people…at least, there weren't in dimly lit room they had entered. Most of the people were sitting at the tables that were scattered throughout the room, but there were a few people at the bar.

Zuko walked up to the bar and sat down. He quickly motioned for the bar tender to come over to him, and asked him if there had been a man with a ridiculous beard with blue eyes and red-grayish cloths. Surprisingly, the bartender actually had. Katara and Aang's eyes widened and Zuko tried not to get excited, "Did you see where he went?"

The bartender thought and then shrugged, "I don't know for sure, but I have a good guess. See, he left here with June, a girl who's rather infamous in this part of town, possibly beyond. Anyway, she owns this old car garage down the street. It used to be white, but by now the paints have worn away, so it's probably kind of gray now. You can go through that door." He gestured to the door on the side of the bar. Zuko nodded his thanks and quickly followed his friends out of the bar.

The now three member crew quickly jogged down the alleyway, out onto the street, and –after a few minutes- reached the garage that the man had described. Katara tried the door, only to discover that it was locked; before she could start pounding on it, Zuko quickly used his sword as a lock pick and silently entered, with the other two following in close pursuit.

The garage was empty; the lights were off, the tool benches cleared off…it seemed as though no one had been there at all. The place was almost completely clean…except for a familiar cell phone lying on the ground. Katara quickly rushed over to it and picked it up; she then looked at the others with confirmation. "It's Sokka's." They nodded and immediately began to search the garage for any clues as to where Sokka went.

After a few minutes, however, their search was interrupted by the sound of the garage door opening. Aang, Katara, and Zuko quickly spun around to face whatever was coming in. The first thing they saw was a huge…anteater like thing with a woman riding on its back. "Well, well; I spend all day looking for you and yet, here you are…right in my garage."

Katara stepped towards her threateningly; "You…" her voice was filled with venom. "What did you do with Sokka?!"

"Him? You mean the guy with the fake beard? He only told me a little about your general location, even after I…persuaded him." She glanced at her whip. "Anyway, that loser's long gone. Probably somewhere near Met by now." She shrugged uncaringly. "Anyway, he isn't your problem here. You're coming with me Avatar; Fire Lord Ozai wants you alive. Your companions however, are expandable." She glanced at Katara and Zuko, but she seemed genuinely surprised. "Zuko? That you? What are you doing wi…." She didn't get to finish because she was suddenly knocked off her shirshu.

"What the hell?" Zuko said, but then he looked at Aang, realization dawning. "Air bending?"

Aang nodded, "Yeah, I've gotten a little better at it. Anyway, you take the anteater; Katara and I will take her." Zuko nodded and quickly tried to get the anteater's attention. The anteater looked in Zuko's direction and shot out its tongue.

"What the hell?!" Zuko quickly blocked it with his dual swords. He then quickly tried to pin the tongue down to the ground using his swords, since he guessed that something would happen to him if he touched it. Eventually, he managed to put a foot on top of the tongue and put pressure on it.

The anteater responded by launching itself at him, knocking him off it. When Zuko managed to get up, he immediately rolled to the left due to the thing launching its tongue at him while he was down; however, it nicked his right arm, causing him to be unable to use it. When he realized this, he swore and tried to move even faster to evade the tongue.

However, he was aware that he wouldn't be able to keep it up, so he tried to come up with something, anything that would beat the creature. Zuko stopped moving and positioned his sword above his head to allow him to stab quickly and straight down, and prayed that he knew what he was doing.

The anteater stopped, puzzled by Zuko's still position, but then it shot its tongue at him anyway. Zuko waited while the tongue flew through the air towards him, and then-when he thought that it was close enough- he brought his sword down, blade first, and pierced it to the ground.

The shirshu roared in pain while Zuko raced up and kicked its head with enough force to knock it out. When the creature had collapsed, Zuko walked over and tried to pull his sword out of the ground, but noticed that he still couldn't move his right arm. He sighed and sat down, waiting to see how Aang's battle would go.

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June quickly hopped to her feet and shifted into a battle stance; as soon as she had hit the ground, she was aware that the Avatar would probably try to attack her. This theory was proven true when Aang, using air bending, propelled himself towards her, an angered look on his face. She dodged and, while he passed, raised her whip to strike him, but was knocked down by Katara, whom she had not seen coming. Katara managed to pin her to the ground, gripping the hand that held the whip.

"Tell me! What did you do with Sokka?!" "I told you, I sent him to Met! Why do you care anyway?!" While they were talking, Aang had walked up beside them. He ripped the whip out of her hand, and then threw it to Zuko, who failed to catch it due to his paralyzed arm and got hit in the head.

Aang pulled Katara off June and glared at the Fire Nation lackey. "I could kill right now," he began, his expression showing anger. For some reason, June didn't doubt him. "But, if you tell us where Sokka is and how to get there, then I _might_ let you go." He gestured to Zuko, who came forward and began to tie her up with her own whip. He then slung her over his shoulder and the remaining crew of the APPA left to interrogate their new prisoner…completely unaware of the old man who had seen the whole thing.

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A day later, they were preparing the ship to leave. After questioning her farther, they eventually found out that Sokka was sent to a Fire Nation base on the port of Met, which was on the other side of the wormhole, for further questioning on Aang. When she had told them that, they dumped her outside of the police station and went to finish preparing APPA for liftoff.

There was a silence hanging over the group as they went about their business. Aang was feeling guilty over what had happened to his friend, Katara was worried about her brother, and Zuko was wondering what he could have done to prevent the situation from ever occurring.

Eventually, they were all ready to go. Aang took one last look at Babylon before pressing the button to close the door. When he turned to face the crew, Zuko was already climbing into the pilot seat and Katara was sitting on the sofa, still being silent. They didn't say anything to each other as the ship began to shudder and lift off the ground.

A half an hour after they had left Babylon, their speed began to pick up and Zuko came back into the 'living room'. "We've entered the wormhole's field of gravity; we'll be entering it in about five minutes." Aang and Katara nodded that they understood. Aang looked across at Katara, whose face still showed no emotion. "Don't worry." He said, Katara's head rose up, looking at him. "We'll find him." He grinned with confidence he didn't really feel.

"Yeah, but…" Katara began.

"Yeah, but what? Are you just gonna sulk while Sokka's out there? We practically know the freaking address of the place their keeping! Come on, we can get him back!" He put a hand behind his head, looking kind of sheepish. "Besides, it's kind of our fault he's in that situation anyway, right?" Katara and Zuko weren't to sure how to respond to this, but they just nodded in understanding. Aang nodded, satisfied.

"Okay, now, on to Met!" The ship then disappeared, leaving no evidence of their being there behind. They had finally gone through the wormhole and were out on a mission: to find their friend.

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**And that's it for this chapter! (For the record, June was a real character, if anyone remembers Bato of the Water Tribe from Season 1), anyway, I hope that you like it! Next up, how Zuko met Sokka is finally revealed! By the way, this was one of the first times that I tried to write drama, so I don't really know how it turned out, so if anyone has any advice on how to improve any of these scenes, feel free to mention them! Thanks again for reading! **

**Read and Review or I'll…SUE YA!! **


	4. Chapter 4

Hakoda scowled as he took a sip of his overly caffeinated coffee

**Hey guys, long time no see! I'm so sorry about how long it took for this chapter to get out, but I've been busy with traveling, writing another story, and the evil writer's block. **

**With that said, it may take awhile for another chapter to come up…just to let you know (it depends on how long it takes for me to get over writer's block). Anyway, on with the fanfic!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Avatar…that would require actually having money.**

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** Chapter 4: Zuko's Past**

Hakoda scowled as he took a sip of his overly caffeinated coffee. The day was not going nearly as well as he had hoped.

He was currently sitting in a coffee house in Fate, a town that had only been a tiny village not to long ago, but had expanded drastically due to its fortune tellers and perfume…for reasons beyond Hakoda's comprehension.

The cop sighed as he sat back in his seat, pulling down the bill of his baseball hat over his eyes, and rested. His squad was originally supposed to have the day off, but apparently there was some unique crimes going on in this town and they thought, who else to send but the already overworked Hakoda? He was supposed to be on vacation damn it!

Plus, he reflected, he hadn't been home in forever, so he had been planning to visit Katara and his mother and see if there was any news from Sokka…. He quickly took a big gulp of coffee; he couldn't allow himself to drift off.

As of right now, his squad was focusing on trying to locate the thieves; he, on the other hand, got to sit in a third rate coffee house and wait for them to finish all the legwork…ah, the joys of being in command.

But, he thought, would they be able to corner them? The crimes were rather odd, with the jewelry store glass windows and cases melted right through, disrupted dirt and concrete…how the hell could regular thieves do that without raising alarm or getting some sort of attention?

Hakoda's thoughts were suddenly disrupted by his cell phone ringing. "Hello?" he answered.

"We have managed to route the thieves to a warehouse on the corner between Eldest and First Street; however, when we scouted the place out before they arrived, there weren't any weapons, only drugs and some cash."

"Hmmm…" Hakoda considered; that was certainly unusual; could they be packing all of their weapons on their persons? But why would they do that unless they were going to be confronting a rival gang and since there had not been any reports of such a confrontation occurring…curious. "Thanks Bato, just have everyone hold tight until I get there."

"You got it." And with that, Bato hung up. As Hakoda got to his feet and began to walk out of the place, Aunt Wu, one of the many fortune tellers that had made the city famous, was working behind the counter and motioned for him to come over. "Look, if this is about the coffee, I've already paid for it…"

"I know that; I just wondered if you wanted to hear your future?" it was all Hakoda could do to prevent himself from rolling his eyes. He was well aware that the act of fortune telling was full of crap and the whole thing was a joke; but he didn't want offend her, so he asked, "And what might it be?"

She closed her eyes briefly and said, "I wouldn't recommend going." "Going where?" "To the warehouse." She said curtly.

"Why, what's going to happen?" Now, Hakoda was a little spooked that she had known that he would be going to a warehouse, but that didn't prove anything. She shrugged, "Sorry, can't tell you. That would be cheating." _Whatever_, he thought.

He thanked her and hurried out the door.

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Hakoda managed to arrive at the warehouse ten minutes later; Bato raised his head in recognition of the chief's arrival. "Took you long enough."

"Yeah, well I ran into some traffic is all. So what's the situation?" He glanced at the abandoned warehouse: the overall appearance was somewhat stereotypical, with a few shattered and boarded up windows, with a hastily broken lock dangling from the steel doors. The rest of the warehouse was mainly made of wood, with the occasional hole due to a fallen board.

The warehouse was completely surrounded with cops as they made a circle around it with their hover cars put on standby, with officers with their lasers set to stun (A/N…I don't where that came from), drawn and ready to charge.

"Have you managed to make contact with them?"

"Not if you think 'Go to hell' counts." Hakoda nodded, and then drew his pistol.

"If that's the case, then we may as well go in and pull them out." He pointed to a few of the other officers. "You, you will be following me and Vice Captain Bato as we go in. As for the rest of you, Keep an eye out for trouble and, if worst comes to worst, send for reinforcements." They nodded in response.

From there, Hakoda gestured to Bato and the rest and entered through the front door.

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There was no lighting whatsoever inside the warehouse, outside of the faint sun light coming through the unboarded up windows. The floor was riddled with debris and trash from its occupants. There were also a few pillars scattered throughout the room, just barely supporting the ceiling.

After scanning the area, Hakoda gave the sign for all clear and the rest of the team silently poured in through the door. Quietly, Bato crept up to the door to the next room and, once everyone was in position, kicked it down and leapt in, with his gun drawn.

The next thing everyone saw was an eruption of flames, covering Bato's wrists, and forcing him to fall to the ground, dropping his weapon. Not even stopping, the rest of the team charged, shooting their pistols with curses being uttered at the enemy.

Right before charging into the fray, Hakoda knelt next to Bato and dragged him away from the door and put him against one of the pillars, and then pulling out the first aid kit that he kept with him at all times.

After applying some cream that contained healing nano bots onto Bato's arms, he got up, and, after making sure that his unconscious friend was okay for now, he ran into the room, drawing his old fashioned pistol (thinking that no one would expect it due to everyone's reliance on light nowadays.), turning off the safety, and prepared to fire at the first thief he saw…but, by the time he got there, there weren't any; only his now dead men littered the floor.

Some were stabbed or crushed by spike covered pillars of concrete, others were lying on the ground, suffocated…and if that weren't enough, there were piles of ashes from where officers had once been.

Hakoda's eyes were wide open, and for once, he was openly trembling, "What…the hell…happened?!" He darted around the room, checking to see if, by some slim chance, someone was alive. "No…no!" He cursed after checking the last body he could find.

"Who did this?!" He yelled, losing his cool for the first time in years.

"That would be us." came a voice…from underneath him?! Hakoda glanced down as the ground underneath him erupted, sending him flying across the room and slamming into the wall.

After just laying there for a few seconds, recuperating, Hakoda looked up, with blood slowly dripping out of his mouth.

In front of him stood only three people: two men and a woman…wait, his squad…had been slaughtered…by three people?! His eyes widened in disbelief.

One of the men was tall, wearing army colored pants with a black sleeveless shirt that didn't hide his massive muscles; whereas the other man looked about 5'7', slender, wearing a loose long sleeved shirt and baggy pants, with glasses. The woman was 5'4', also slender, wearing dark pants and short sleeved shirt.

"Hello." The glasses clad man greeted.

"Wh…who are you people?! What did you do to my men?!" Hakoda demanded from the floor.

"Oh, them? We killed them."

"I know that! I meant, how did only you three kill all of my men?!"

The three glanced at each other, and Glasses said, "We just used our bending." He said it as if it were obvious.

"Bending?!"

The woman nodded, "Yes, we can each control an element and bend it to our will; hence, 'bending'."

"Ho…"

"How?" The glasses clad man crouched down in front of Hakoda. "The Fire Nation discovered how." The woman snapped her fingers, and flame came about. The glasses man waved his hand and one of the bodies all the way across the room rolled over with the force. "This is the kind of power you can gain by allying yourself with the winning side."

Hakoda was fading into and out of consciousness at this point, "Winning side? You talk about it as if it were a war."

The glasses man smirked, "What makes you think it isn't? With the power of bending at their command, you think the Fire Nation's just going to stay in the shadows, obeying the government? Like hell we…." The muscular man glared at the glasses clad man. "Whoops, said too much. Hey, Lenny, you think we can get this kidnapping on the road?"

The muscular man glared at glasses, made a gesture, and Hakoda slowly began to sink into the concrete. He just looked at them, moments away from finally passing out, "Kidnapping? What did I…?" His eyes closed and his mind cleared, finally giving way to unconsciousness.

As the last traces of the police chief disappeared into the concrete, the glasses man only smirked and, not caring if Hakoda could hear him or not, said, "Your son has gotten into things that you can't begin to comprehend." He turned to the muscular man and gestured, "Lenny?"

The man scowled, "How many times do I have to tell you: My name's Len, not Lenny." He said as he 'earth bended' them into the concrete as well.

The whole warehouse was silent, except the sounds of Bato panting as he lay right next to the now open doorway, contemplating on what he had just overheard.

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**A Few Days Later…**

Zuko hurriedly sprinted down the metallic hallway, dodging and rebounding laser blasts with one of his swords drawn. He was currently being tailed by around twenty people, all of which were trying to kill him. Maybe it was the ski mask that he was wearing with the left eye covered…or maybe it was the way he had blown up the main entrance of their base and had stolen several vials of the 'bending' serum from their labs.

He turned down a hallway to his right and prayed that Aang and Katara would be able to find him in time…or preferably, they had found a temporary haven where they could figure a way out of this place.

As it turned out, the latter was correct; out of the corner of Zuko's eye, he saw Katara gesture to him from what looked like a garage, and then the door began to close. He put even more effort in his sprint and quickly slid under it (Indiana Jones style…except he didn't have a hat) while lasers were beginning to pelt at the rapidly closing door.

Zuko sat on the ground panting while the door quietly slammed to the ground. Aang walked quickly towards him from where he had been by the door's control module. "Did you get some of the serums?" Zuko nodded while panting, and then sat down again on one of the numerous crates that riddled the thirty by forty foot room.

He shifted his satchel so it sat on his lap and opened it…only to notice that it was wet. "Oh crap." He moaned while he pulled out a chuck of glass. Aang groaned while Katara's eye began to twitch.

"This is all because of you sliding in here, looking bad ass and crushing the serums while you were at it!"

"What was that? The only reason we snuck in here was because you wanted to get your hands on some of the damn serum!" Zuko said with indignation.

"If we were able to bend the elements like the Fire Nation, we would stand a chance! We could find Sokka and put a stop to them before this gets out of hand!" Katara countered while she and Zuko glared at each other while Aang was looking through the satchel.

"Hey guys…"

"Shut up, Aang!" They both snapped while they went back to arguing.

"There's still some left in here." He said, pulling out three unbroken vials.

"What part of shut up do you not…" Their eyes widened at the sight of the vials. One had red, one blue, and one brown looking liquid in it.

"Here." Aang tossed the red to Zuko and blue to Katara. "I guess Sokka will have to make due with this one when we find him." He said as he pocketed the brown one.

The other two nodded and looked at their vial, when the sounds of the door being forced open intensified, bringing them back to the real world. "Okay, so how do we do it? Swallow it?" Zuko asked as he analyzed his serum's container.

"You inject it. There's a syringe hidden in the bottom." Aang explained as he went towards the door, gathering the energy for a huge air blast in preparation for when the Fire Nation minions finally did open the door. "You have like, two minutes…tops."

That was all they needed to hear.

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Ed Flare was not having a good day; not only had some intruders managed to break in and making off with some of the serum, but….

"Have you managed to find the thieves?" He calmly asked one of the men who was sent to retrieve him from his quarters.

"Yes, they are currently being held up in a garage not too far from here, but we are encountering a small…"

"Don't say small!!" Ed glared angrily at the officer. Forget to wear your elevator shoes once and suddenly, everyone is making fun of your height!

"Yes sir; we are encountering a _slight_ problem getting the door open, but we should have solved it by now."

Ed nodded his approval and increased the length of his stride, eager to get this over with so he could go back to sleep.

The reminder of the journey only took them a few minutes; when they arrived, the door itself was beginning to be forced open, with men ready to charge in once the gap increased.

Once the door got to about waist high, however, a sudden blast of air mowed over the group of people that had been standing right in front of the door. Suddenly, the three intruders shot out from under the door and quickly began to fight through the men to try and reach the hallway.

Ed sighed, while being somewhat impressed by their guts, and began to summon fire to his hands and let a few fire balls loose at the intruders. The bald one and the girl dodged, but the masked one didn't notice in time and ended up getting some of his mask burned away.

"Zuko!" Aang called and, using air bending, began to make his way over to his friend. Ed's eyes grew wide, "Zuko?!" When he looked back at the boy he had hit, and, sure enough, he saw a scar that covered most of the left side of his face. "It is Zuko!" Ed stated in disbelief.

Aang noticed this, but decided against mentioning it right then, "You okay?" He asked as the fought off the men that were surrounding them. Zuko nodded, glared at Ed, took a deep breath…and began to let loose fire blasts in his direction.

"What the hell…?!" Ed shouted as he quickly fell to the ground to dodge…and hit his head, successfully knocking himself unconscious.

After that, it was child's play to fend off the Fire Nation members, even with no real experience or knowledge of how to control their elements; that would come later, but for now, it was enough.

Even with bending, however, that didn't mean that it wasn't taxing on the trio as they fought their way to the exit.

By the time they had managed to fight down the countless hallways and have their backs finally pressed against the door, they were all panting for breath and sweating. Katara quickly got the averaged sized steel door open while Zuko and Aang covered her; once they got out and slammed the door shut, Zuko quickly melted the door and the doorframe together, ensuring that no one would be able to follow them right away.

After that, they collapsed onto the ground, leaning against the door and listening to the bangs that let them know that the Fire Nation hadn't given up yet (maybe they shouldn't have gone with the laser-proof, multi layered steel after all). The trio just ignored them and took a look around at their surroundings.

The base had been located in a ghost town of a village, complete with a semi cheesy welcoming sign that had been hung from a hovering bill board platform, but both the platform and the sign had long since crashed to the ground. The village itself wasn't too big, with one street straight down the middle of the village passing the majority of the houses and shops.

After a few minutes of rest, the trio got up and left the village via the main highway, and, after a ten minute walk/jog, they managed to get to the outskirts of town. Quickly, they ran all the way over to where they had hidden the APPA (Inside of a former car garage) and set it up for take off.

Once they were in the air, they finally let themselves relax; Zuko even set the ship to auto pilot, came back to the living room in between the engine room/storage room and the pilot cabin, and collapsed on the couch…and stayed that way for a few hours.

After Aang thought that Zuko had had enough recuperating time, he asked, "Hey Zuko?" Zuko grunted to let Aang know he was listening.

"How come that guy back at the base recognized you?" Katara stopped reading her book for a moment and looked up, curious.

"What do you mean by 'recognized'?"

"That short guy back at the Fire Nation base recognized both Zuko's name and scar…so I'm wondering why." He turned his attention back to Zuko who shrugged.

"I don't know why he would act as if he knew me; I've never met him before."

"Did you ever get mixed up in Fire Nation business before Aang even came around?" Katara pressed.

Zuko's eyes narrowed slightly, "I don't know."

"How can you not know? I'm just asking if you ever went vigilante and interfered with something backed by the Fire Nation is all!" Katara said, getting somewhat annoyed at the scarred teenager.

"Because I. Don't. Know." Zuko snapped, his eyes narrowing.

"And I'm asking…" Aang gestured for her to be quiet.

"We're just wondering…why don't you know?" The Avatar host asked gently.

"Because I don't remember." Zuko mumbled as he leaned back against the couch.

"You don't remember…what?" Aang pressed lightly.

"Anything: where I'm from, how old I am, my parents, anything." Zuko said as he put a hand to his forehead, as if he were trying to think. This caught Aang and Katara by surprise; there was a brief silence.

After a few minutes, Aang asked, "So, you have amnesia?"

Zuko rolled his eyes, "I guess that's another way of saying the same thing, thanks."

"What's the earliest thing you can remember?" Katara asked.

There was a brief pause as Zuko tried to recall. Finally, he said, "I remember your brother, Sokka, looking down at me; he looked like he had been in a fight, with some blood on various places on his clothes, a black eye and such. The sounds of police sirens were ringing through the air; so he quickly helped me up and began to try and get to a hospital. On our way, I noticed that we had been surrounded by injured and possibly worse people, which made me wonder groggily if there had been a fight or something. After limping a few blocks, we reached the hospital. After that, it gets a little fuzzy, but I remember fading in and out of consciousness.

"I don't know how long I was there, but Sokka visited me often, telling me about what had happened. Apparently, there had been a huge brawl between two rival gangs; Sokka and Suki had happened to be passing by and got caught up in it. From there, Sokka had lost track of her during the fight and had been looking for her when he had found me among the bodies. He then told me about her, how he had met her, that sort of thing; after that, he talked about you, your life on Water Tribe S, and your parents.

"Well, by that time, I had recovered from my injuries, but I couldn't remember anything from before the fight; Sokka had pity on me and from there, helped me get a job and let me live with him." Zuko got up and began to walk towards the pilot's cabin, and just before he entered, he turned back and said solemnly, "He helped me get back on my feet and gave me a life again; so I'm going to the same for him." With that said, he entered, leaving Aang and Katara to ponder what they had learned.

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**And there you go! I hope it was worth the wait! **

**I just saw the finale last night and…wow, just wow. It was so epic and easily the best episodes of the entire series…but it's kinda hard to imagine that that's it…the series we've all been loyally following and scrambling to find every piece of news for is gone now…I guess this is where the fanfiction comes in, eh? We won't let this world die!!(We are either dedicated fans…or we're all in denial…) **

**Anyway, feel free to let me know whether this story is heading in a good direction or not!**

**Read and Review... **


	5. Chapter 5

There was a slight glimmer of sunlight that came between the bars of his window; the window itself was positioned seven feet u

Hey, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here! Chapter 5 is finally done! (sorry it took so long, but it's been rewritten several times and the new beta readers are also trying to find time in their busy schedules to help poor creativity drained me!). That's right, Dreams now has beta readers (which means that the updates may be slower…sorry, but quality beats quantity after all)! Meet Sokka's Instincts2 and bookworm97!

_Bookworm97_: **Hello there! For those of you who don't know me, I'm bookworm97, and although I started out as a beta, I am now co-authoring this story. This chapter doesn't have a lot of my writing in it, but in the future I will be writing more into these stories, so think of this as the intro.**

While bookworm97 is helping me with plot, Sokkas Instincts2 is saving my butt with grammar correcting and helpful advice. Hopefully, the three of us will be able to improve the story you know and kinda sorta like enough to read…maybe.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing…would I be writing fanfiction if I did?

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**Boiling Rock Part 1**

There was a slight glimmer of sunlight that came between the bars of his window; the window itself was positioned seven feet up on a metal wall, across from the metal door. The formerly sleeping teenager blinked slightly as he leaned up slightly on his metal bed, trying to get his mind up and going…and failed. He just groaned as he laid back down, his injuries acting up. The sunlight fell on the young man's face, showing the beard that was slowly forming, his weary blue eyes, and his hair was now close to shoulder length; yes, Sokka had seen better days.

His jeans and t-shirt had been replaced with a blue prison uniform and he was barefoot, with the elbow length sleeves only showing the tips of his new scar collection…admittedly, he had gotten most of them trying to escape, but that only increased their worth. _At least I'll have something to brag about to the others when I get out of here_, thought Sokka to himself as he put his hands behind his head and started to stare up at the dull ceiling. "Who am I kidding? There's no way in hell I'll get out of here." He groaned to himself. "The others have no idea where I am; much less the ability to bust me out (I know, I've tried)…I'm so royally screwed." He mumbled, frustration leaking into his voice as he sat up, ignoring his wounds spurts of pain and closed his eyes.

There was a sudden knocking at his cell door; an 'officer' (i.e. a Fire Nation thug), dressed in a black and red short sleeved uniform while wearing a helmet that had a visor that covered his eyes save for two small slits for him to see out of, was pounding on it.

"Time for breakfast." He stated curtly while scowling. He then pressed his palm up to the scanner that was just to the left of the door on his side, and pushed it over. Sokka didn't say anything as he got up and began to walk towards the officer, only to have him trip him, making the Water Tribesman fall to the metal floor with a thud.

"Clumsy Water Tribe trash." He sneered as he shut the door and kicked Sokka in the side, where one of his many wounds wasn't fully healed. The teenager only gasped slightly as the pain exploded throughout his body; he just laid there until the pain allowed him to get up.

He staggered down the metal hall, passing the occasional metal door off to his right with a rail off to his left that was open for him to see the rest of the prison; seeing that he was on the thirteenth floor, he had a rather impressive view**. **However,the only thing to really see was the occasional prisoner or guard walking about or the metal doors that contained the rest of the prisoners. Today, he just stared straight ahead and followed while glaring at the guard as he lead him into the elevator and pushed some buttons, entering a key code, and then entered the now open doors.

There were several other people in the elevator, who then made room for the new arrival to fit inside; once Sokka had squeezed between several people, the guard then pushed a few more buttons, making the elevator doors close and then it began to lower. Knowing that any conversation that might occur was being taped, Sokka chose to say nothing to his fellow felons; and not all of them were there because of the Fire Nation. No, on his first day there, Sokka had recognized several murderers or rapists that had been on the news (his dad had helped _catch_ some of them) as well as some important people from the Earth Kingdom.

As Sokka soon learned, every settlement out there wasn't necessarily underneath the Galatical Federation; there were two or three other powers out there, such as the Earth Kingdom, which was made up of the majority of the minerally rich planets as well as some of the most unique animals out there. Then there was the Water Tribes, who were rich in ocean life as well as ice and any possible life that could be hidden in it. As it turned out, his home was part of this faction and Sokka never even guessed it. He, like his father, had just sort of assumed that they were apart of the Federation. Finally, there were the Air Nomads. These were the guys who had hoped to reach spiritual enlightenment about the universe by itself and life's mysteries (they had been taken seriously until some of them had claimed the answer to life the universe and everything was 42), but they had long since gone, with very few, if any, left. Personally, Sokka guessed that Aang may have been one of them, but never had the time to ask.

Which had led to him wondering why had there been political prisoners inside of a Fire Nation prison, with none of them being from the Federation? How could they even have gotten the people away from their posts without it getting fried on the six o'clock news on every settled planet…unless the people of the Federation never got the message…which probably meant that the Galatical Federation was already sleeping with the Fire Nation. Sokka could only groan softly, pondering the depth he had ended up throwing not only himself, but his sister, his best friend, and some kid who could bend the elements.

By the time his musing was done, Sokka noticed that the elevator had stopped and the doors beginning to open. He stepped out of the elevator as to let the other prisoners out, and began to make his way along the bottom floor. This floor mainly consisted of the cafeteria, the workout room, and more cells; but it also had two giant doors at the end of hall that led to the stone courtyard beyond. The group of inmates made their way towards the cafeteria. The entrance to said room was off to the left of the floor, past twelve holding cells; after a two minute walk, they reached the entrance and opened the door.

The cafeteria itself was about the size of a high school gymnasium (a high school gym made of steel walls, floor, and ceiling, but a gym nonetheless), with long tables set vertically, connecting to one another all the way to the other side of the room; it also had dim florescent lights dangling from the ceiling. The tables themselves were already crowded by fellow inmates, with even more in line along the serving line, where prisoners on kitchen duty would dump whatever crap they had managed to make on their trays. Sokka quickly got in line and grabbed a tray.

As he slowly made his way down the line, the water tribesman didn't even look at the men who dumped food onto his tray, with plops ringing as the semi solid, possibly edible food landed.

The process took five minutes due to the line progressing oddly quickly that day. After he had his 'food' he began to wonder throughout the cafeteria, hoping to find a vacant seat not next to someone who looked like they could rip his head off if they wanted.

After his third pass, he had all but given up and was about to take his chances when he saw a man waving him over. Noticing that it was his friend, Chit Sang, he made his way over to him and sat in the seat across from him. "Hey." He stated as he began to take a spork to his breakfast; Chit Sang just nodded and went about eating as well.

Chit Sang was a man who looked about in his late twenties to early thirties, with a stern jaw, slight facial hair growing, as well as a rather muscular build; he wore the traditional prison uniform with a dark red t-shirt with black pants. To this day, Sokka didn't know how he had ended up at the Boiling Rock. All he knew was that he could fire bend, but the means of how he had gotten his hands on some serum was never revealed.

As they continued to eat/drink their breakfast, Chit Sang's eyes widened and he shot Sokka a warning glance…which went unheeded due to him not paying attention to anything but his thoughts and his food.

He only looked up once a heavy hand grabbed his right shoulder, "The Warden wants to talk to you." A deep voice stated; one of the Warden's personal guards had come to fetch Sokka. He lifted Sokka up and over the bench he had been sitting at, with a spoon still dangling from his mouth.

_Crap_, he thought as he was lead away, _the Warden wants to interrogate me…again! What a crappy way to start a day_. The captive Water Tribe man glanced forlornly at his breakfast as he was forced out of the cafeteria.

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Sokka rolled his eyes as they began strapped him to the metal chair. _They're slightly overestimating me_, he thought as the guards finished, locking his wrists and ankles against the cool metal. The rest of the ten by ten foot room was made of similarly colored steel, as were the walls; Sokka couldn't help but wonder if the Fire Nation had a metal fetish. Naturally, he didn't share that particular opinion with the two muscular guards standing right next to the door.

After two minutes or so, the door finally opened and then quickly slammed shut behind the Warden and his second in command. The Warden was about five foot seven, pale, with a graying ponytail and goatee, whereas the second in command was about five foot nine, with a mane of dark hair trailing down to below his shoulder blades, very tan, and had a voice that apparently could scare the crap out of the even toughest felons. Sokka thought that this was an exaggeration, but he could see what they meant.

"Good morning Sokka." The Warden greeted kindly; Sokka knew it was all an act, but he sat there and said nothing. "I hope you are finding your stay here pleasurable." The Water Tribesman just snorted; the old good cop bad cop routine? What did they think he was, six?

"Yeah, being in a prison is _so_ much fun; I can't believe I didn't get myself thrown in here sooner!" Sokka was attempting the cool smart ass act. He got one of guards to snicker.

The middle aged man only chuckled darkly and he leaned forward, "Listen, I'm having a bad day already, so how about you keep quite and just answer my question, _got it_?" He hissed as he leaned over to the prisoner. Sokka smirked smugly, knowing that he had gotten under the man's skin. The Warden was never the most tempered person and his second in command even less so.

This irritated the man so he raised a hand, about to hit the rebellious boy when he caught himself. He took a deep breath and lowered his arm until it was behind his lower back and was gripping his other hand in frustration.

"Let's start over." He stated while beginning to circle the room. "I believe you met a white, twelve or thirteen year old, boy, no?"

"I've seen lots of twelve year olds, you're gonna have to be more specific." Sokka scowled. The Warden walked over to him and bent down slightly to see eye to eye with him.

"Was his name 'Aang' perchance?" Sokka glared straight right into the older man's eyes.

"Never heard of him…" The Warden hit him in the face, sending his head off to the left, so the right half of his head was visible to the guards.

"LIAR!" He grabbed Sokka by the collar and positioned him so he was looking right at him. "We know that you traveled with him; we know that you fought Xin Fu with him! We know that you know him and where he's heading, so make it easier on yourself and tell us!" Sokka scowled and glared up at his captor and spat right into his face.

The warden dropped him immediately; staring in awe of the insult for a second, then he wiped off the spit, brought his fist back, and punched the Water Tribesman in the gut. Sokka leaned over coughing, struggling for breathe. "Damn you Water Tribe scum! You have no idea who you're dealing with! I'm…"

"The warden of the Fire Nation's most infamous prison, I know." He got out as he slowly got air into his lungs. "What difference does that make?" He leaned forward while glaring at the Warden. "Who honestly gives a shit? Your second in command doesn't, your guards don't, so why should I? I bet you didn't even earn that reputation." he spat again, this time at the warden's feet; the warden punched him in the jaw, sending his head swinging off to the left, and then punching it again, sending it to the right.

"No more games!" He hissed while bringing something out of his pocket; it was the size of a razor, with two metal prongs at the end. He pushed a button and it sparked to life, sending a

current of electricity between the metal prongs. The Warden made his way over to the stunned Water Tribesman. "No ones coming to save you, so why protect them?" he whispered as he lowered the device so it was right above Sokka's right forearm.

"If I don't…then who will?" the teen whispered back, bracing himself for the oncoming pain; the warden nodded, having expected the answer, and brought the device down.

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In the end, Sokka didn't break. Actually, by the end of the session, he wasn't even conscious. When he woke, he was back in his cell, with pain screaming at him from every pore. He didn't scream though, he just bit down on his lower lip, forcing himself to try and ignore the pain, and sat up on his bunk. A little cry escaped him as he sat up and looked around his cell.

It was dark, indicating that the sun had gone down, since that had been his only source of light. "Good thing I was never scared of the dark." He murmured out loud to himself as he stared at where he knew the wall was.

A tiny voice of doubt spoke up, "How come no one has come for me? I've been stuck here for two months! Wouldn't they have found me by now?"

He responded to himself, "So what if they haven't found you? It's a big galaxy; there are literally billons of places for you to be! Besides, shouldn't I be focusing on how to get my own ass out of here?!"

"Then will they ever find me? Besides, haven't I already tried to escape? And look where it got me! Beaten up and interrogated practically daily! If it were me checking billons of places for only one person would be overwhelming…" he then whispered the one thing he had feared since entering the Boiling Rock, "…what if they've given up? Evading the Fire Nation must have been too hard for them to do while searching for me…so maybe they've decided to continue without me." He had no response to that; he just lay down on his bunk and just stared at the ceiling, thinking in the darkness of his cell.

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Chit Sang glanced at his friend while they were eating breakfast; he hadn't seen him at all since breakfast yesterday and when he saw him today, he noticed the new welts and bruises, but he wasn't as concerned about those. If they were that big a deal, Sokka would have talked to him about it. No, he was more concerned about the look of hopelessness that showed in is eyes. The way he ate was mechanical, lacking any of the energy he usually put in the activity. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the teen was beginning to break; after all, he had already done better then Chit Sang had originally expected.

"Is something wrong?" he asked frankly (he was never famous for his tact; he was, however, infamous for his forwardness). Sokka looked up at him, clearly not wanting to talk about it. _He really is a teenager_, Chit Sang thought as he leaned towards the teenager in question. "Look, to

be quite honest? I really don't give a shit if you don't want to talk about it. I want to know and you are going to tell me." He tried out the glare he had used on many a person in the past; Sokka only cringed and looked down at his food. _Hmm…maybe there was a reason I was never good with kids_, he pondered as he sat back to figure out his next move.

He didn't have to think very long. Sokka, after a minute or so of silence, answered, "It's just that…I'm kind of worried, I guess." The older man nodded, _now _they were making some progress.

"About what?"

The teen looked down, "It's just that…there were some people I was taking care of right before I got thrown in here. I want to know where they are…and if they're okay, you know?" Sokka's explanation met silence while Chit Sang pondered what he had been told.

He sighed and said, "Well, you know what they say, no news is good news." He leaned forward. "Listen, these kids of yours? From what you've told me, they're a reasonably smart bunch, so you probably don't have to worry about them. The reason that you haven't heard from them means that, chances are they're preparing to get you as we speak. You know, so the Fire Nation both has no idea where they are or when they're coming." Sokka looked up, some hope returning into his eyes.

"Really?" his friend nodded.

"And even if they aren't…"

"But you just said they were!"

"Shut up! Anyway, even if they aren't, are you just going to let that slide?" he looked the teen right in the eye. "If they aren't coming to get you, then you'll have to let yourself out. They need you right? Then how can you justify just sitting on your ass, moping when they're out there, probably in danger?" Sokka was silent for a bit while he considered his friend's words. Chit Sang pressed his direction, "Listen, I know how the other escape plans have turned out, but to be honest, no one ever succeeds on the first try, you know?" Sokka flinched slightly in memory.

"You know," he finally said after ten minutes of pure silence. "You may be right." Sokka looked up, his eyes bright again. You could practically hear the gears in his head turning. Chit Sang smirked.

"You have a plan?" Sokka nodded while beginning to grin.

"Yeah, but we're gonna need help." Chit Sang considered this, then nodded and stood up. Sokka followed suit and together, they left the cafeteria, determination sketched on their faces.

_Chit Sang's right_, Sokka thought, _I'm gonna get myself out of here and help out the others…just they wait and see_!

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And that's all! We've finally caught up with Sokka and it seems he's already made friends with inmate Chit Sang…what changes could this lead to, I wonder? Anywho, I might as well say this: this and my other story Straw Hats Adventures are going on hiatus from now until I have time. School is just killing me and making my writer's block worse (so if anyone has any suggestions, we would like to hear them.); however, whenever there's a vacation, I will try to get something up. Outside of the occasional oneshots, don't expect much…sorry. Thanks for reading and I'll try to get things sorted out here!


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey there, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here! Yes, as a matter of fact, I am alive, thank you very much. Yes, it has been awhile since I last updated, but I have been having a heck of a time at school, sports, and writer's block were all pressing down on me, but here's a new update anyway…hopefully, it was worth the wait (even if it's not, then hopefully the next one or two chapters will make up for it…whenever I can get them done)**

**Also, starting this chapter is something that I'm going to call: SPOT THE REFRENCE! Basically, it's a contest going on the fact that I like to make references or parody things, so I'm going to start including one or two characters or names from other manga or anime or whatever. Who ever spots them first and states the reference and where it's from, in a review or whatever, than they get a point. The first person to three points gets a one shot dedicated to them and the next chapter early (the one shot being about whatever they want…so long as it's not yaoi or lemon…)**

**It's the first time I've tried anything like this, so hopefully it turns out well. Enjoy the chapter! **

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing and never will.**

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**Chapter 6: Mago part one**

The heat was astounding; Katara could feel the sheer intensity of the flames that now engulfed her friend Zuko's hands as he slowly shifted from his battle stance. His eyes were intensely focused on some unseen enemy, whom he quickly doused in flames as his motions began to speed up, sending flames out of his limbs with every punch and kick he threw. The air began to reek of smoke as the flames lit up the high school gym sized room, with the flames getting larger as the teenaged boy put forth more and more effort into his attacks, which were now occurring at a very quick pace.

Beginning to get concerned (and annoyed by the smell), Katara closed her eyes and focused on the water bottle before her and, with a gesture of her hand, turned its contents to ice and forced the water to expand and broke through some of the plastic; After which, she returned the ice to its liquid form, then, with a careful motion of her arms, began to raise the water through the cracks in the bottle, eventually getting all of its contents free of their prison. Grinning, she took some of her sweat and the air's moisture and added into her arsenal of liquid, which she then promptly flung at Zuko.

Sensing the oncoming projectile, Zuko quickly dropped to the rubber matted floor and rolled under the torrent of water and began to hop to his feet. Reacting quickly, Katara then gestured for the water to curve back towards her and, in turn, Zuko. Zuko, in turn, launched a series of fireballs at her while also dodging to the side in order to avoid to the on coming water…only to land smack dab into Katara's attack, being hit by the ice pillar that was now the water. Falling to the ground with the air knocked out his lungs; Zuko glanced up only to see the water, having returned to its liquid form, coat him…and then become freezing cold. As a result, most of his flames died.

The teenaged boy glared at his attacker with both his good and bad eye as she just grinned at him. She then held out her hand to him and helped him onto his feet, while also removing the water from him and putting it back in the little satchel she kept at her side at all times. "Good practice," she remarked to him as they began to make their way out of the gym.

Zuko only scowled, "Yeah, yeah." She laughed at the older teen's grimace, but continued her statement.

"No, really; you're doing well Zuko. Nobody would be able to guess that we only acquired our bending abilities a few months ago. It's good progress, don't you think?"

Figuring that it would be pointless to argue with her, Zuko conceded to her, "Fine, but don't you think that Aang should being doing a little more practicing with us? After all, he is the one that the Fire Nation mob seem to be after, thanks to his stealing of their Avatar serum and all." They had now entered a rather dimly lit steel hallway, with the occasional lamp stuck on the wall that would give off adequate lighting (just enough for people to see where they are going).

The waterbender only shrugged, "I don't know. When I last checked on him, he claimed to be working on some awesome airbending technique, so I guess we'll just have to let him be the judge." As she was speaking, a sudden shot came from behind them.

"Katara! Zuko! I've finished it!" Shouted a grinning Aang, who was currently running towards them. "I've finished my new technique!"

Both Zuko and Katara blinked in surprise, "Already? But you just started it two days ago!" Aang just shrugged and began to search for something.

"Just hold on a sec…" he said as he moved on to checking his pockets, turning his back towards his friends. "Ah, here we are!" He turned around again and said, "Be prepared to be amazed."

"Uh, Aang, are you sure that you should be doing that out here in the hallway? We could just go back to the gym…" Zuko asked…only to have his jaw drop when he saw what his friend was up to. The Avatar serum wielder had his hands outstretched before him…and spinning between them was a marble. "…this is your new technique…?" Zuko asked quizzing.

The Avatar beamed, "Yeah! Isn't awesome?" Naturally, while he was grinning with his eyes closed, he didn't see Katara's rapidly descending hand as she gave him a light smack on the forehead.

"Aang, while that is impressive…to a degree…, Zuko is right. Since the Fire Nation is after you, you really should be focusing on more serious training!"

Aang just rubbed his forehead while giving Katara a mild glare, "But this is serious! Not only will I be able to move around a marble, but…I will be able to cut stuff between my palms!" Zuko and Katara's glares only steadily increased in severity, causing Aang to sweat drop. "Fine…fine, whatever." He raised his palms up in a conceding fashion and the trio began to make their way towards their room. Aang grumbled as they went, "I bet Sokka would have liked it…", adding a rather dreary aspect into the atmosphere between them as a look of guilt crossed both the teens faces. Noticing this, Aang thought to himself, _I guess Sokka's name is taboo_. Sighing, the trio continued on their way through the dimly lit hallway, eventually being engulfed by the darkness surrounding them.

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Tatsuma Sakamoto grinned quietly to himself as he walked through the darkened space station of Mago. This venture had actually turned out to be worth it after all! Not only had he managed to acquire some new space ships to transport goods for his trading business, but he even managed to get a pair of new sunglasses!

"Hahaha…what a deal!" He laughed as he usually did when something happened or when he arrived somewhere. A passing security guard noticed the odd scarf wearing business man with black puffy hair, at that point. Sighing, the guard walked over to the still chuckling nut who somehow managed to sneak his way into the closed port.

"Excuse me…sir? What do you think you are doing here? The port closed two hours ago; I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave and just come back in the morning to board, okay?" The guard was then shocked when the man just turned to him and laughed.

"I'm not here to board a ship you space case! Why would I do that? I'm just looking for a guy named Kintoki! Do you happen to know him?"

"What? You mean the head of Tourism Control? What do you need her for?"

"Nothing! I was just in the area and I decided to check up on him; he is an old friend after all." Sakamoto found his seemingly unending optimism begin to slightly dip when the guard didn't seem to believe him. "Seriously! I do!"

The guard continued to regard him with skepticism, but groaned when he saw the earnest and trusting look on the idiot's face…. "…fine, I'll take you to her office, but if you're lying…" his hand rested on the gun that was holstered at his side.

Taking up on the hint (after all, with a guy with Sakamoto's personality, he has become used to being threatened by people), Sakamoto quickly nodded, "Yes sir!" Thus, with only the soft hum of running machinery to fill the air, the two men began to make their way through the darkened, deserted lobby.

"So," the guard asked after a minute or so of silence. "How did you manage to sneak into the port?"

The business man just laughed, "I didn't sneak in! I just fell asleep on the toilet…hahaha!" The guard looked a little disgusted upon hearing this, but continued on his way towards the head's office.

"You know, I'm finding it really hard to believe that you really know Ms. Kintoki." Remarked the guard as he began to knock on her door.

"Please, we go way back…I'm sure that he remembers me!" The man just rolled his eyes and knocked.

"Ms. Kintoki? Some idiot called Sakamoto's here to see you…Ms. Kintoki?" He knocked again. After waiting five minutes, the guard found himself beginning to get worried. He quickly grabbed the set of keys that he had talked the Janitor to give to him and began to try and unlock the door. "That's odd…she's always here until one AM…" he said under his breath as the door swung open.

Together, the odd duo walked into what could only be called a rather boring, typical office set up: a huge wooden desk that was made from some 10,000 year old tree on some distant planet, a couple photos and a paper thin computer decorated its surface. A portrait of an old woman was hung over the wooden wall, above the leather sofa that was near a couple soft chairs, all on top of a nice dark blue carpet. Sakamoto had to duck to avoid the crystal chandelier that hung from the ceiling. Overall, the only thing that stood out was the array of buttons implanted into the desk's surface.

However, the huge comfy looking office chair was empty.

"What the hell…?" The guard looked confused, but immediately began searching through the office, checking for signs of a struggle or something. Personally, it wasn't any real skin off Sakamoto's nose as he just remembered that the Kintoki he was looking for didn't work in a space port at all…and was on Earth…and was male. The odd businessman only shrugged to himself and began helping the guard look.

"What the hell is this?" the guard asked as he inspected the panel and began to reach down towards the red button. Alarmed and aware of what was probably about to unfold, Sakamoto ran towards the guard to stop him from mistakenly pushing the button…only for his sandal to get snagged on the carpet and causing him to trip…smashing the button down himself.

The result was immediate; the lights turned a dim red and explosions could be heard coming from deep within the complex. "What did you do?!" The guard demanded while Sakamoto could only laugh to himself over his mistake.

"My best guess? The button just triggered a set of explosives that were placed in the control center of the space port…destroying every ship there and ensuring that no one would be able to get in or out of the station."

"You bastard!" The guard yelled at him as he punched him. As Sakamoto fell to the ground, the door burst open, and the police came marching through with their guns drawn. Both the guard and Sakamoto immediately raised their hands above their heads.

"…oops…" Sakamoto sweated as they were dragged away.

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_15 Minutes Earlier…_

Len muttered to himself darkly as he scratched at his bald head. Why did the higher ups have to make him and Glin come to this remote outpost and have to report to this bitch? He glared at the cloaked figures that sat across from them, slowly sipping their tea. How could this actually be one of the great generals of the Fire Nation?

Glin was much more at ease, casually pushing his glasses back up on his nose, making them gleam from the dim light suspended above them; around them, there was a slight murmur of other conversations going on in the old tea house outside of their wooden booth. After a brief silence, the smaller cloaked figure spoke up in a raspy tone, "So what news do you two bring? I haven't heard how the Boiling Rock situation ended; did they get any information about the Avatar from the boy?"

Len was about to speak up, but Glin quickly silenced him with a wave of his hand, "Actually, that's exactly what we were here to discuss with you, Ms." He said politely. "The boy has managed to escape, along with a few others." He eyes turned cold as he said this.

The weight of the news caused a visible response of surprise (uncommon among the elite of the Fire Nation) in the smaller one's demeanor while the taller one looked over at their companion, confused. _This _caught Glin's attention; _ah…I guess the Ms. hasn't confided in the Apprentice…interesting…. _He glanced at Len, who nodded, confirming that he noticed too.

Finally, the Ms. composed herself, "When?"

"A few days ago; he managed to escape after six months of torture and interrogation, leaving us with nothing to go on." Glin responded, his answers slowly becoming more curt and rude.

Despite noticing this, the Fire Nation elite decided not to say anything, while her apprentice was practically shaking in anger. "How? How did he escape?" she asked, realizing that the insolent young man was simply going to play 20 questions with her.

Satisfied that his quizzer had accepted her place, Glin replied, "He made an alliance with the Hispanic village that had recently been sent to the prison, you know, the one that had somehow acquired hundreds of earth bending serums? Anyway, with their help, along with a man deemed 'Chit Sang' by his peers, managed to cause a prison riot and kidnap the warden during one of his rare visits to the prison and managed to get on his private vessel…. When they discovered the ship via its standard tracking chip, they only found a wreck with the warden tied up inside it."

Glin then decided to stop for a few seconds, just to hear the older woman curse the warden's incompetence. After she finished, she spoke up, "Did his father escape with him…?"

Glin shook his head, "No, we doubt that he was even aware that his father had been taken, so we still have a hostage or bargaining chip to use against him if need be." The young man just shrugged then, "However, some of us are rather skeptical that he will amount to much, much less meet up with the Avatar again…as it is a pretty big galaxy, no?"

The old woman just glared at him from under her hood, "Don't be a fool. As you get older, you learn not to take any chances regarding loose ends such as this, as they will always come back to bite you." As she was speaking, a great rumbling suddenly filled the air, while the old tea house was shaken, causing the dim lights hanging from the ceiling to shift, casting their gaze on surprised and confused customers.

"What the hell?!" Len shouted as he sprang up from his seat, while Glin actually looked visibly rattled and confused. The Fire Nation General's voice shook as she gasped, "No…it can't be…it's far too early…"

Naturally, this caught Len's attention, "What's 'too early'? What have you done?!"

She was about to speak, when a suddenly a loud clattering suddenly was heard and everyone in the tea house turned and found themselves staring at a primed grenade…lying in the middle of the house.

No one had a chance to say anything before it went off.

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Meanwhile, Aang and co were currently sitting easy in the apartment they were currently renting. Sure, it was in one of the worst part of station Mago, but the rent was cheap and it provided them with a temporary reprieve from the APPA, whom they had hidden in one of the artificial lakes that were placed randomly throughout the station.

The station itself was closer to the center of the galaxy, positioned one or two million miles away from planet Blaze, who was in turn close to the planet of Water Tribe N, the halfway point for any Galatical traveler/hitchhiker, as it was position precariously as close to the center of the Galaxy as can be without putting it into danger.

Mago looked basically like a long, metallic snow globe positioned on top of a large, clunky asteroid, with many turrets positioned along the sides and top of the dome of the station itself, that helped with the station's positioning and could serve as weapons if need be. The dome was not clear, but was layered with solar panels that could be used to reflect what was happening on the outside of the station into the artificial sky being projected from the panels on the opposite side of the dome that provided power for the station.

However, inside of the station, such as the city itself, was rather disorganized, but still falling into the typical pattern of society, with the rich in the center of the city and the closer you got to the edge of the main city, the poorer the conditions and wealth got, with the exception of the occasional suburb. Outside of that, there were the mines that burrowed deep within the asteroid, excavating the minerals that it held, as well as some artificial lakes that served as pools and fishing places. Other places of interest were the rapidly increasing number of strip clubs that….

Aang blinked as Katara turned off the TV. "Hey! I was watching that!" he objected as she tossed the remote onto the rather beat up recliner that had a small spring sticking out of it, beside a wooden desk with a broken lamp. Overall, the room was small, but it had two twin sized beds and a bath room.

Suddenly, the door to their room was slammed open and Zuko entered, with sweat dripping down his worried face, "Guys, we have a problem!"

Katara and Aang looked up, surprised that Zuko had returned so soon; after they had returned to the room from Katara and Zuko's workout, he decided to go back and work on his bending some more.

"Why, what happened?" The Avatar host asked, concern slightly entering his voice.

"Hurry up and pack; we have got to reach the APPA right now! The space port was destroyed, as well as the city hall, and, immediately afterward, a group claimed to take ownership of the city; naturally, that didn't sit too well with the local gangs, who also wanted ownership, and it's evolved into an all out gang war." While he was explaining, Zuko was quickly gathering up his own belongings.

Katara quickly followed suit, while Aang stayed where he was with a thinking expression on his face. "Aang, come on!" Katara said.

Aang shook his head, "Shouldn't we be trying to help these people, instead of running away?"

Silence met his words, and, with the silence, the sounds of gun fire and some screams could be heard from outside their little sanctuary. Zuko and Katara glanced at each other, doubtful expressions etched on their faces. "Well, that sounds good Aang, but what do you think we could do? There are several gangs duking it out and what, do you think the three of us should just try and take them all on?" Katara demanded.

"No…but the least we can do is try." Aang replied sternly, looking at her with an adamant expression on his face. Katara tried to stare through it with a glare of her own…but inevitably crumbling before Aang's superior, good guy glare. She groaned and turned her back, picked up her stuff, and remarked:

"Fine…but only after we drop our stuff off at the APPA…" Aang perked up at her words and complied, and, together, the three left the room and plunged into anarchy.

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…**and that's a wrap! Hopefully, it was good enough to come close to making you guys forgive me for the long hiatus…which I can not apologize enough for. Hopefully, you guys saw the reference (the big one at least, I may have made one or two other minor ones unintentionally…if someone thinks that it's a reference, mention it and I'll double check for you)**

**I'm afraid that I don't know when the next chapter will be done (as school is still in session and throwing wrenches into my writing live), but hopefully it will be done soon. Until next time!**

**Read and Review**


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